Underworld - Skym

Here's a song I love in such a quiet way that I never really stop to think about it. This and "Winjer" are sandwiched between heavy hitters "Shudder/King of Snakes" and "Bruce Lee" on Beaucoup Fish, and because of that, they both get kind of passed over. While "Winjer" definitely still feels like a 'corridor' track, "Skym" has this wonderful complexity bubbling below its quiet surface and at some point, it kind of stealthily sunk into my deepest feelings for this record that I love so much.

---

---

---

Watch:

Last night I hit the first showing of André Øvredal's latest film The Last Voyage of the Demeter. I was not a fan of the trailer, which I've sat through multiple times at the Cinema, and although the film rubbed me a bit wrong right at the start with its inherent "Big Studio Feel," Demeter ends up being pretty solid.

For a Dreamworks film, Øvredal makes some decidedly stunning choices. Even more stunning is that those choices got through the Big Studio filter. Makes me curious what they might have forced him to cut. I don't want to give the impression this flick is some gnarly Horror film - you can tell from those trailers that it's not - but at times, it's a lot more savage than I would have expected. Three stars out of Five and a Heart on Letterbxd. 

And on the Horizon...

  

Having never heard of the Elevator Game before an episode of Paramount Plus's Evil - highly recommended, btw - I was pretty stoked when, on the Colors of the Dark podcast sometime last year, Rebekah McKendry mentioned her next film would be based on this weird A.F. urban legend. Now, here's the trailer:

I love actual Urban Legends, but the movies based on them almost always fall short for me. Holding out hope this won't fall into that same problem for me. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

High On Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remixed/remastered)

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish

Ganser - Odd Talk

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Comic Book Herald - Talking Krakoa X-Men Hellfire Gala 2023 Post-Game Show

Team Sleep - Eponymous

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Wands

• Queen of Pentacles

• Six of Pentacles

A breakthrough of Will leads to understanding and acceptance of defining terms. That's a bit opaque, however, being that the Queen of Pentacles is the Emotional approach to Earthly matters and the Six of Pentacles is a balanced, 'perfected' state, I choose to read this as another reminder to follow the path before me, even is at kicks and bucks. I made huge progress in the last twenty-four hours based on the fact that yesterday's reading was spot on, so I'll continue the trend today.

 

---

---

---

High On Fire's First Album Again

Man, I was pretty skeptical when I heard High On Fire were having their first album, The Art of Self Defense remastered for a re-release. On the one hand, it's still probably my favorite of their albums (Blessed Black Wings comes a pretty close second, though). Yet, while I still have the original, Man's Ruin CD version of Self Defense I bought at Crow's Nest Records in Down Town Chicago shortly after it came out in 2000, I'd love to have the record on vinyl, so it was with great trepidation I hit play on Apple Music this morning...

It's awesome. My greatest fear was they would raise Pike's voice and over-compress; not that there's a precedent for the latter with the band's subsequent releases, and I love Pike's voice as it's come to more prominence with each release after this one, but there's something so amazing about the way Self Defense sounded the day I brought it home, sparked up and put it in the stereo all those years ago. I was perplexed by the singer's voice being so low (this was my introduction to the new wave of "Stoner Rock" as everyone was calling it at the time, having previously enjoyed St. Vitus and Count Raven more 'flush with the mix" vocals on WXAV, 88.3 FM, St. Xavier's College Radio), but marveled at the way the guitars sparkled like they do for only one other human being I know - Tony Iommi! The rhythm section was so tight, so pummelling; it was all just such a fresh experience compared to whatever else was out there at the time Metal-wise. So The Art of Self Defense looms large in my life, and as with anything we deem to be of that importance, I felt nervous as hell about anyone changing it.

Again, no reason to be nervous. This shit rules!

"Blood From Zion" feels the most changed from the first side of the album ("Master of Fists" sounds like a different guitar take altogether was used for this release). Interestingly, for most of the tracks, Matt Pike's voice remains at just about the exact same level it was at in the original release; it's just clearer. Nice trick! The descending riff that bridges the first and second verses has to be heard on headphones to be believed. IT'S SO FUCKING HEAVY. I mean, it was always so fucking heavy, but it's like they added subsonic bulldozers to the mix or something. SO GOOD. 

You can find this pretty much everywhere online, however, High On Fire's Bandcamp has an exclusive, and while I love that original cover, I do still have that CD (remember Grace note database or whatever that function iTunes had where, if you transferred a CD to digital it could find the album information for you? When I digitized my old Self Defense to put on an iPod back in the late 00s, it came back with The Art of Self Defense, by Sleep!). 

Yeah, I think I can make room in my soul for this cover, too. You can also order directly from MNRK Heavy HERE, where the non-exclusive still has the same cover and will cost you a few bucks less on shipping.

---

---

---

Watch:

Two nights ago, K and I watched Kurtis David Harder's newest film, Influencer on Shudder. I dug Harder's previous film Spiral quite a bit, but based on the title of this one, I was expecting a story about a completely unlikeable Influencer who gets her comeuppance.

Nope!

I'm not going to post the trailer, because you shouldn't watch it. Yes, in the opening sequence of the film, you meet a really annoying social media influencer. Stick with it! That's not what the film is; this one reminded me A LOT of the experience I had watching Brad Anderson's Transsiberian back in 2008 or 2009, whenever it first hit video. Both films take continuous ninety-degree turns, so without having seen a trailer or read anything about either, I was left wondering from scene to scene, "Oh, is this what the film is about? Is this the landscape the characters are going to have to live in?" And, so beautifully, those assumptions were always squashed as something new gets introduced to change the film's narrative yet again. Really fun watch; not Horror, but a thriller for sure. Save it for a night when you want twists and turns more than blood and guts.

---

---

---

Playlist:

††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

††† - Eponymous

The Bronx - The Bronx (III)

Various - Lost Highway OST

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Deftones - White Pony

Converge - Jane Doe

Blue Karma - The Friction, the Pain

      

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XIV - Temperance or "Art" in Thoth speak

• Four of Swords 

• Three of Swords

Fight for your Art! Fours show stability and Threes the process of Growth or Change. The Novel's becoming something more than I'd planned, and while it's more work, I can temper myself against that and fight on toward the finish line.

Tarot aside, if you dig Jonathan Grimm's Bound deck, he has a Kickstarter launching on September 5th for his new deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot. This one's all Metal, Monsters, Magick in one beautiful deck. Here's the link; the campaign isn't active yet, but you can hit the Notify Me button and get in on the ground floor September 5th!

 

---

---

---

The Besnard Lakes - She's an Icicle

 

Somehow, I totally missed that The Besnard Lakes released a three-song EP last year. The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP is one of my favorite missives from the band in some time, and of its three perfect tracks, opener She's an Icicle is, to me, everything I love so much about the band: the swirling morass of guitars fx and keys, Bonham-esque beats and Jace's heavenly voice surrounded by layer upon layer of harmony, all combining to make a dirgey rock and roll ephemera. You can order this directly from the band HERE.

---

---

---

NCBD:

Short and sweet this week. Here we go:

I love the fact that we still haven't seen all of the fallout from the events of this year's Hellfire Gala. Man! I'm still blown away by that issue. So much changed so fast. Based on this cover, I think we're going to start really feeling things with this issue.

I wasn't going to read this issue the same way I keep saying I'm dropping Ghost Rider's main monthly book, but they keep pulling me back in. The idea that there's a new Weapon X/Weapon Plus program coming, but one that utilizes the stolen powers of Hell just blows my mind. HIGHEST of concepts; let's hope they pull it off. 

 

---

---

---

Brew:

I stumbled across this on Kickstarter recently (Thanks to an email from Unplugged, the beer tracking app), and I'm pretty tempted to get in on this one:

It's a lot of money, but seems like it would definitely pay for itself at some point. Or, it would just make me drink more. Hmm...

---

---

---

Read:

I finished Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper yesterday and am happy to report I was blown right the fuck away. Talk about one-upping the original. I'm not saying Reaper is better than Chainsaw, but to be as good, with even more stakes, well, damn. Just damn. Now we just have to wait until March 26, 2024, for the final installment, The Angel of Indian Lake. 

Now, of course, I need something new to read and I just don't know what can follow SGJ. I've had Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls in my Kindle forever, but my friend Jesus sent me a physical copy a few months ago and it's on my nightstand, so I guess that's the winner by default. 

This one comes highly recommended by a lot of people; however, for whatever reason, I've been reluctant. I LOVED Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism back when I read it circa 2017, so much so that I actually bought something like half a dozen copies and sent them to a bunch of friends for their birthdays at the time. That experience left me feeling like I would read anything Hendrix wrote, then a funny thing happened. I watched Satanic Panic, which Hendrix wrote the screenplay for, and hated it so much that it turned me off instantly. If questioned, I no longer even remember what it was I disliked about that flick, and a good friend recently said he saw it and loved it, so I'm thinking if We Sold Our Souls goes over well, I may give that another go, too.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow Live at CBGB

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP

††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

---

---

---

Card:

• Ace of Disks

• III The Empress

• Queen of Cups

Ace of Disks always reads as a monetary or 'Earthly' breakthrough, and combined with The Empressthe implied Motherly qualities of The Empress and the Emotional fortitude of the Queen of Cups, I'd say this is directly referring to my folks coming down here this weekend to house hunt. 

 

---

---

---

New Music From †††

 

I did not realize we had a new full-length on the way from Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez's †††, but Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. officially drops on October 13th. Pre-order Here.

This one took me a minute to warm up to, and I'm done with it until the full-length arrives, simply because with †††, I really feel the context of an entire recording makes their songs that much stronger.

---

---

---

The Vinyl High:

A couple new acquisitions showed up on my doorstep last week. First up, Bohren and der Club of Gore's 2000 MASTERPIECE, Sunset Mission:

This is one I've wanted for quite some time. Available HERE on the Pias label's website; I'd seen a few complaints on Discogs about this pressing being noisy, but not my copy. Pristine, Sunset Mission was made to be heard on vinyl. This one is kind of the nexus of everything I love about the music in Twin Peaks and everything I love about the music in Cowboy BeBop, so finally acquiring it on vinyl kind of completes a bit of a trilogy for me, I guess. 

Next up, John Harrison's Soundtrack for George A. Romero's Day of the Dead:

I honestly don't know how I passed this one by for so long. I'd actually forgotten Waxwork Records released this until two Fridays ago when I watched the Joe Bob Brigg's Last Drive-In season finale, where Joe Bob and Darcy not only played and talked about Romero's third entry in his original Zombie trilogy but also had a small cast reunion with Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander and Jarlath Conroy. I'd already been thinking about Boards of Canada a lot recently, in that I started following the BOC fan Instagram page, where one post kind of marveled over all the negative reactions to 2013's Tomorrow's Harvest. Easily my favorite album by BoC - which is really saying something because I have deep connections to most of their records - not only did I never understand how so many people didn't like this, I doubly didn't understand how 80s Horror fans don't like Harvest, because it plays so much like a Carpenter/Romero score. This is especially true of Harrison's work on Day of the Dead, where most of Harvest would seemingly be right at home following the opening track of the movie.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Witchskull - The Serpent Tide

The Cure - Pornography

Fabio Frizi - House By the Cemetery OST

Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

---

---

---

Card:

• Six of Disks Success

• Princess of Disks

• Three of Cups: Abundance

This feels like a direct response to yesterday's Pull, as a lot of my reservations disappeared as soon as I started really applying my force of Will to make progress and achieve success in a few chapters that seemed hopelessly lost a day or so ago.

 

---

---

---

RIP William Friedkin

 

New Music from 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards!

Well, I totally fucked up Marty and Drexel's Live Music Week, so here's some new music from former 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards. 

It's hard to imagine a band and album that affected me more in the early 00s than 16 Horsepower's Low Estate. I love everything they did, and everything David Eugene Edwards followed that band in Wovenhand, and now everything he's released under his name (which is still also known as Wovenhand? I'm not really sure). But everything has been chasing that feeling I got the first time I heard "Brimstone Rock" and the thirteen songs that follow it. But that's the thing with an artist like Edwards - he makes such a deep impact upon introduction because his approach, his songwriting, his tone and his lyrics all combine to make such a signature sound, that it's similar to but completely unlike anything you've heard before until you hear him. So too with this new track from the forthcoming album Hyacinth, out September 29th on Sargent House. Pre-order HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

I watched a couple flicks over the weekend, but none I enjoyed more than 2018's The Meg:

When I saw this in the theatre upon its original release, I didn't really care for it. Didn't hate it, but nothing about The Meg grabbed me at the time. After hearing Ben Wheatley is directing the sequel, and after seeing a trailer for Meg 2: The Trench a few weeks ago and really digging it (I can't turn the deep sea trench thing down, and there appears to be a lot more of that in this film), K and I decided to rewatch the first movie. You know what? LOTS of fun. I don't know if I was just in a more accepting mood because of my interest in the sequel, but I really had a good time with The Meg this time. 

 

---

---

---

Read:

Less than one hundred pages from the end, I can tell you that Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper is one of the best sequels ever! 

I blew through almost two hundred pages yesterday, which wasn't easy to do as we had guests visiting from out of town. This is one of those carry-it-everywhere-and-read-it-any-chance-you-get novels, and I am 100% riveted. If you've still not read My Heart is a Chainsaw and you love literature, Horror novels, Slasher flicks or just a damn good yard, grab that and this in one swoop and dig in. 
        

---

---

---

Playlist:

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands

Led Zeppelin - Eponymous

Led Zeppelin - IV

The Door - L.A. Woman

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 2: Philosophy of Beyond

Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Sandrider - Godhead

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin

Various - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo

---

---

---

Card:

• Three of Disks: Works

• Five of Cups: Disappointment

• Ten of Cups: Sobriety

I'm having self-doubt that I can pull off this new novel the way I want to. That's a bit vague, but the cards definitely seem to be referencing this fear. There is a height I feel as though this story can attain, I'm just not sure I'm completely on the path to achieving that. Which would be a shame, because if I finish it and it's not what I want, I'll have to take a break for a while and come back to it. The Three of Disks indicate success through effort but juxtaposed with disappointing results. The Ten of Cups indicates perfect alignment, which leaves me needing a clarifying card:

• XVII: The Star indicates a turning point for the positive. Also, from the grimoire:

"Fulfillment - when this comes up, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan."

 

---

---

---

Sinéad O'Connor - Mother by Pink Floyd Live

I believe Marty and Drexel promised live music week, so here's me making good with Sinéad O'Connor singing Pink Floyd's "Mother," in 1990.

---

---

---

New Aphex Twin!!!

I saw this new Aphex Twin single dropped a few days ago, but it actually took me a minute to build up the desire to hit play. I haven't loved much of what Richard James has done over the last two decades, so I was tentative to re-engage with new Aphex Twin music. Turns out, all my fears were for naught, as I love this track; it reminds me - in spirit - of I Care Because You Do, which I used to lay alone, high, listening to in my room in my early 20s, a rich but isolatory experience to say the least.

 

---

---

---

Watch:

A trailer for Satanic Hispanics dropped yesterday - I've been waiting for this one since I missed out on scoring tickets for the screening at last year's Beyondfest:

Ever since I first saw The Convent in 2003, I've been a pretty huge Mike Mendez fan, and while I don't love everything he does as much as I love The Convent, I count him as a favorite Director. Also, thanks once again to Beyondfest, around 2013 I was introduced to GiGi Saul Guerrero's short film El Gigante. I've mentioned this one here before, and even though it's no longer currently streaming on Shudder, it's 100% worth looking up. Think OG Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Luchador wrestling and that will put you in the ballpark. It's awesome, and ever since seeing that, Guerrero is another Director I follow. Her and Mendez's involvement in this Anthology puts it at the top of my "I want this right bloody now" list, so waiting nearly a year has been difficult. 

                       

---

---

---

Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)

Blut Aus Nord/P.H.O.B.O.S - Triunity

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Aphex Twin - Blackbox Life Recorder 2f (single)

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP

Baroness - Last Word (pre-release single)

---

---

---

The Kills Live From The Basement!!!

 

"Mutha fucka must'a thought it was live music week. It ain't live music week, is it Marty?" 

"Yeah, man. It's live music week." 

Well, Marty and Drexel have spoken. It's live music week. Here's a nice, tight live set from The Kills, originally published on the From The Basement youtube channel, which you should definitely check out and subscribe to HERE.

---

---

---

NCBD:

My picks for this week's NCBD:

After last week's Hellfire Gala, well, shit. I can't wait to see this. I'll admit, I did not expect the landscape of X to be so completely changed in just one issue. Looking at a lot of the books launching after this, I'm not super interested in how the X Bullpen is choosing to explore this new playing field, however, I maintain my hopes that the core books will continue to turn out awesome entries into this aptly named Fall of X saga on a monthly basis.

The final issue of TMNT's The Last Ronin: Lost Years. In comics, possible future spin-offs are pretty common, and in general, I'd say I'm a fan. That said, there's so much of this kind of story out there, it feels a little overdone these days, and I tend to stay away from them. In TMNT's case, I really feel like they did it right. I don't know if I need a constant line of these Last Ronin stories, but I'd definitely be up to revisit the world again at a future date.

A Thessaly one-shot written by James Tynion? Yeah, sure. I want that. Thessaly's always been a Sandman Universe character that fascinates me. She's brutal and sexy and seemingly has no fear, which always makes her showing up a bit fretful for the characters already in play in any given story. Since this ties into the current Nightmare Country storyline, I'm curious to see whose blood Thessaly spills. Also, curious to see her and The Corinthian interact, as I can't remember off the top of my head if that's ever happened before.

---

---

---

Read:

I finished my re-read of Stephan Graham Jones's My Heart is a Chainsaw yesterday and immediately jumped into this year's sequel, Don't Fear the Reaper. It's funny - last year when Chainsaw came out, I was sick, home from work for a week, and read it in three days. This year, I'm not only working, but hammering out a novel, so I had to read it more piecemeal. Didn't affect the sheer joy the novel inspires in me, but I also wanted to state it out loud, so no one out there reading this thinks Chainsaw is anything but one of the greatest Horror novels since Pet Semetery. 

Only a couple chapters in so far, and I already can feel I am standing at the precipice of a masterpiece. I don't know how I can love the sequel more - and I don't want to jinx it - but the broadening scope Jones starts laying out in Chapter Two: Dark South Mill has me positively giddy with excitement at where the novel will go.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish

The Kills - Live From the Basement

Arctic Monkeys - The Car (thanks Josh!)

Goblin - 2013 Tour E.P.

Zombi - Shape Shift

Mammon XV - Woes and Winter's Breath

Silent - Modern Hate

Meg Myers - Sorry

Steely Dan - Aja

Calexico - The Black Light

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• IV: The Emperor

• V: The Hierophant

• Page of Cups

Decisiveness in the face of dogma and institutions we adhere to in our daily lives. In other words, decide against the grain of the life I've set up

---

---

---

Duration:

I've kind of messed up the days I'm doing this report, and this is a week old now, so I'll post the current report tomorrow.

Better. Not great, but better than last week, and I'm making leaps and bounds in the actual mechanics of the ending, which again is known, but not yet written. I've gone back through the entire novel, shoring things up, installing alignments that will hopefully carry me into a successful first draft of that ending.

---

---

---

Alice Donut - Mother of Christ Live

From Alice Donut's 1994 Live at CBGB's album Dry Humping the Cash Cow. Fantastic double-disc capture of Donut in their prime. Mr. Brown gifted me this on vinyl and a few years ago and from first listen, the recording and performance blew me away. I wish I would have seen Alice Donut live, but alas, that never happened. I don't know their discography nearly as well as I should, with a large part of my time with the band having been eaten up by a preoccupation that bordered on obsession for a while in the late 90s with their 1992 masterpiece The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children, which is start to finish, one of the best and most underrated albums of the 90s.

---

---

---

Watch:

I've been waiting for Stewart Thorndike's Bad Things to hit Shudder since reading an article in the most recent issue of Fangoria. I wasn't the biggest fan of Thorndike's 2014 film Lyle, but I definitely liked it and felt as though, my opinion aside, this was a director to watch.

 

This flick looks unnerving as hell, and all the references I keep seeing to Gayle Rankin's performance evoking Jack Torrance, well, sign me up.            

---

---

---

Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow

The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast - S7E21: The Top of the Heap

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

---

---

---

Card:

• III: The Empress

• 0: The Fool

• XIII: Death

Lots of BIG influences are afoot today. Keeping my eyes open for signs to the contrary, but this seems to suggest a fork in the path; institution vs. change.

 

---

---

---

Beaucoup Fish

 

I cracked out the Underworld the other day for a writing session and got to wondering where the seemingly found-sound sample at the beginning of Beaucoup Fish's track "Jumbo" came from. Leave it Reddit to supply an answer. From a Drowned in Sound interview with Karl Hyde from 2010, you can read all about it HERE (the specific reference to the sample is in the final paragraph of the interview).

---

---

---

Watch:

I have this list of things friends recommend to me. I always feel a bit bad, because it sometimes takes me years to get around to a lot of it. But I do try to get around to as much of it as I can. Case in point: it's gotta be three years since Mr. Brown recommended HBO's Painting with John, a short-episode show where Lounge Lizards co-founder and Jim Jarmusch regular John Lurie pontificates on everything from New York to sunsets to Barry White, all while working on his iconic watercolor paintings. Here's a trailer:

   

I put this one last night when it was too late to start a movie, and K and I both kind of fell in love with the show. Lurie has fascinated me, ever since Mr. Brown gifted me No Pain For Cakes, the Lounge Lizards 1987 album that just hit me at the exact right time. Painting with John has kind of done exactly the same thing.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Haunt Me - Dying in Your Arms

Jed Kurzel - The Babadook OST

Jammes Luckett - May OST

Sandrider - Godhead

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Spotlights - Seance EP

A001 - Necro (single)

Brand New - Science Fiction

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish

Underworld - Riverrun Project

Godflesh - Purge

Secret Chiefs 3 - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini

Naked Raygun - Over the Overlords

Etta James - Third Album

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

---

---

---

Talk to Me

 

Another new Ghost of Vroom track dropped two days ago, and it's probably my second favorite from the pre-release singles for the upcoming album Ghost of Vroom 3, out September 1st on Mod y Vi Records. You can pre-order the vinyl from Doughty's website HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

Last night K and I saw Talk to Me at the local theatre. I am still thinking about it. This was one of those films that afterward, I didn't come home, open a beer and throw something else on. I dug right into those articles in the new issue of Fangoria that I'd been saving. 

Luckily, after seeing the trailer back when it first hit the internet, I have not watched it since, so I barely even remembered anything about this one. There's hype building around it that's turning some folks off, but I'm here to tell you, that hype is deserved. I've seen Beyondfest post on their socials numerous times declaring the first feature by twin brother directors Danny & Michael Philippou as the best Horror film of the summer, and Fangoria put it on the cover of that aforementioned new issue. Also, I've heard there is a lot of viral marketing that somehow I was fortunate enough to have missed. So I went in pretty virgin.

Even if you're inundated with the marketing, I'm recommending you see Talk to Me and you see it in a theatre. The sound design is a large part of how effective the film's unease is - it's LOUD and SHARP and often pummels you in short, declarative bursts. No explosions - just visceral, meaty stabs of sound. The performances are all fantastic, and the overall manner in which the plot unfolds felt fresh to me. 

The Philippous have created a Horror Prop that, in my opinion, has similar potential to Hellraiser's Lament Configuration, so we'll see if we get a sequel. 
            

---

---

---

Read:

This morning I discovered that there's a new novel on the horizon from Jonathan Lethem, author of a couple books I adore, namely Motherless Brooklyn; Gun, Occasional Music, and Amnesia Moon. Not to mention his batshit crazy Omega the Unknown for Marvel back in the early 00s. 

From the official Publisher's solicitation for the novel: 

"On the streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual goes down: the dance. Money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. The promise of violence lies everywhere, a currency itself. For these children, Black, brown, and white, the street is a stage in shadow. And in the wings hide the other players: parents; cops; renovators; landlords; those who write the headlines, the histories, and the laws; those who award this neighborhood its name. The rules appear obvious at first. But in memory's prism, criminals and victims may seem to trade places. The voices of the past may seem to rise and gather as if in harmony, then make war with one another. A street may seem to crack open and reveal what lies behind its glimmering facade. None who lived through it are ever permitted to forget. Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his powers."

Brooklyn Crime Novel drops on October 3, and can be pre-ordered on Indiebound HERE or wherever books are sold. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

Sandrider - Godhead

Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

H6LLB6ND6R - Side A

Ghost of Vroom - Ghost of Vroom 3 (pre-release singles)

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

---

---

---

Card:

• Knight of Wands

• Six of Swords - Science

• XV The Devil

Will applied to Will, a strengthening of resolve and a healthy dose of knowledge - possibly from a less-than-ideal source or possibly even a dodgy source.

Because I didn't ask a specific question, I have to read this as applying to my current writing project. If you read these pages, you know that's how I usually do Tarot. The specific question thing always seems a bit... dodgy to me (look! The cards are already sussing things out). It works, for sure, but I've never seen Tarot as a mystifying oracle, i.e. Omnipotent third party. I mean, I don't know that anyone who seriously studies the cards looks at them that way, but that's something that's definitely in the air. that said, I've done a specific question or two lately and the resultant Pulls have been spot-on, so it does work. The thing is, that just means I already know the answer to the question, anyway...

How this relates to the current project? Not so sure yet. I'm thinking it has to do with the ending, which exists in a theoretical way, but doesn't quite have the steam behind it for the prose to manifest yet. Perhaps I need to carouse some other works of fiction to look for some kind of jumpstart phrase or idea?

---

---

---

RIP Sinéad O'Connor

The most Punk Rock musician of the 80s and probably the 90s has passed away, and while I'm not a very active fan - I love her first two records, but they tend to emotionally destroy me, so they don't make it into regular rotation very often - I have long considered O'Connor one of the most important figures in modern music. Her passing feels like a death knell for music as a form of expression. Not the actual act of making and releasing it, but the philosophical aesthetics that go with it. Or, SHOULD go with it. Is there anyone today that would take the opportunity of a lifetime as a guest on the most watched pop culture tv show and use it to express their beliefs about the horrors being committed by major social institutions, all at the risk of destroying their career? I think not. 

I'm glad I got to see that infamous SNL performance live, when it aired, as well as her performance earlier in the evening of This is the Last Day of Our Acquaintance, the song/performance that, to a 14-year-old metal head, affected me in a way I wasn't able to understand until I was considerably older. 

RIP. As Kevin Smith would say, big bucket of win, Miss O'Connor. You traded your own stardom for the chance to make the world a better place. You are from a world that no longer exists.

---

---

---

Watch:

About a year ago, I fell down a rabbit hole reading about Sinéad O'Connor. One of the things I found that really increased my already weighty respect for O'Connor was that, in 1995 when Late Night TV Discussion Forum After Dark did an episode titled "Ireland: Sex and Celibacy, Church and State", O'Connor called into the show to join the discussion, then took a taxi to the studio and joined in person ten minutes before the end of the program.

This just blows me away. This woman was the epitome of Punk Rock at a time when Punk rock was becoming a fashion statement. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

 Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Sinéad O'Connor - Lion and the Cobra

White Lung - Paradise

White Lung - Eponymous

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Metallica - Lux Aeturna (single)

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Death Grips - No Love Deep Web 

---

---

---

New Music from The Kills!!!

 

From the 7" New York/LA Hex. Took me a bit to warm up to this track ("New York" has a more classic Kills sound). You can go HERE and get this one from Domino Recordings. I'm hoping this means there's a new full-length from the band on the way.

I love the video for this one; it's funny how, as happy as I am to have left L.A., and experiencing what a mixed bag it is going back for work two weeks at a time periodically, all the imagery here feels so familiar that it kind of acts as a balm for the piece of me I left behind there. Don't mistake that for homesickness; as I've taken to telling anyone who asks, L.A. is officially a post-apocalyptic city, and living there amounts to little more than sheer madness to me now. That said, it's something, to be able to walk the streets of a SciFi Dystopian version of one of the world's most iconic cities and see it with your own eyes. All of those textures are present in this video, so much so, it almost feels like the band are characters in a movie the song is from. 

---

---

---

NCBD:

My picks for this week's NCBD!!!

I keep saying I'm going to drop this book, but I'm still here. The previous issue scratched enough of an itch that I can't quite bring myself to jump from ol' Flamehead's ship just yet.

Another year, another Hellfire Gala! Can't wait to see what big changes spring from this one.

Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips's Newburn returns after what feels like a year-long hiatus (might have actually been just that). This is a fantastic crime book, and I'm curious to see where the big picture will go.

After an initial setback getting my hands on the first issue of the latest installment in Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Bone Orchard Mythos, I acquired and read Tenement issue one last week. LOVED it, and now I'm fortunate enough to be able to dig into issue two so soon after what proved to be a very provocative set-up.  

The final issue of The Seasons Have Teeth! This series was a surprise hit with me, and I can't wait to see how it ends. The monsterizing of each individual season has been super cool, and from the glimpses shown across the various covers for issue 4, Winter may be the most insane design of all. 

---

---

---

Watch:

While I ended up coming down on the "Yes, I like this," side of the fence for David Gordon Green's Halloween Requel trilogy, I will say hearing that his next project was basically doing the same thing for The Exorcist excited me. I've never seen Exorcist Two: The Heretic, and despite trying four or so times, I abhor the monstrosity that is William Peter Blatty's Exorcist III. I know at some point in the early 00s, two cuts of a prequel came out, but I've never bothered with those either. So, being that I have always considered William Friedkin's original cut of The Exorcist the scariest film ever made, I would like to see someone who has proven he can learn from others' mistakes and give us new installments in otherwise lifeless, iconic franchises.

Pretty sure this will be fantastic. I wasn't so sure of that at the beginning of the trailer (yes, I watched it, but I won't ever watch it again, and when it comes on the next time I'm at the theatre, I'll be getting up to leave the room).

---

---

---

Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child

Rick Derringer - All American Boy

SQÜRL & Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST

Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

Sigur Rós  - ( )

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

The Kills - New York/LA Hex 7"

NIN - With Teeth

Portishead - Third

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Crystal Castles - II

Chelsea Wolfe - Spun

  

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• VII: The Chariot

• Knight of Pentacles

• XV: The Devil

Emerging victorious from a trying time; sheer force of Will pulls me up and out of the darker side of my brain. A perfect encapsulation of this past Sunday/Monday, when I underwent what I can only describe as a complete Bi-Polar, manic episode. Keep in mind, I've never experienced or been diagnosed with Bi-Polar. I've always considered myself lucky that my brain chemistry, for the most part, has been even. Not sure what happened over the course of those two days, but I think it had to do with too much caffeine and too much social media/phone in general. I'm backing off communicating for a while; this won't affect this blog, but if you know me and I don't answer messages online, don't take it personally. I'm trying to put my head back on straight.

---

---

---

New Music from Colter Wall!

 

Really digging this new album from Colter Wall that dropped yesterday. Major props to Jonathan Grimm for turning me onto this guy. You can order Little Songs directly from Colter's website HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

 I have had a rough time trying to get into Junji Ito's work. I tried the 2000 adaptation of Uzumkai titled Spiral and didn't get very far. I recently attempted the new Netflix series adapting several of Ito's stories, and hated what I saw of it. So many people I know and respect love Ito's work though, so I keep periodically trying. What I need to do is pick up one of the collections of his Manga, however, I have such a pre-existing and totally unfair prejudice against Manga from my five years at Borders Books that I can never get myself to actually buy any of them. Now, there's a new Adult Swim adaptation of Uzumaki coming out, here's the trailer:  

Just based on this 'trailer' - which is really just a scene from the series - I think this may be my entry point into Ito's work. There's something so stark about this; a friend has talked to me at length about the mystery of Uzumaki, and it always sounds fascinating and urgent, which is kind of the vibe I get here. No release date information yet, but Uzumaki will air on Adult Swim, which is of course one of the "Hubs" on Max. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Colter Wall - Little Songs

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Rina Mushonga - In A Galaxy

Future Islands - Singles

Godflesh - Purge

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Assembly Line People Program - Eponymous EP

Deadguy - Work Ethic EP

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Drug Church - Hygiene

Aerosmith - Pump

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Knight of Wands - The 

• Two of Swords

• Four of Pentacles

I don't have the perspicacity to interpret this today, so I'm just leaving it here for future reference.

---

---

---

Pale Dian's Feral Birth

 

Somehow, I totally missed that Austin's Pale Dian released a new record last year. I've had Feral Birth on rotation since discovering it a few days ago, and I really dig it. If you missed out on 2016's Narrow Birth, it is well worth your time, as is all of Pale Dian's music. You can order a digital copy of Feral Birth directly from the band on their Bandcamp HERE, or you can hope their label, Green Witch Recordings, does a re-press of the vinyl. If they do, it should be available at the Green Witch Shop HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

Yesterday, HBO dropped a new trailer for the upcoming second season of Álex de la Iglesia's 30 Coins, and it looks fantastic!

I love this show so much, I'm not only excited for the second season to drop in October, but to rewatch Season One beforehand. I can't wait to relive this one. Igelsia's take Horror is unlike anything else I've ever seen, with its often-comedic underpinnings offset brilliantly by the creepiest take on Catholicism I've maybe ever seen. 

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST

Agnes Obel - Aventine

Pale Dian - Feral Birth

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Mannequin Pussy - Patience

Sandrider - Godhead

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Sepultura - Schizoprenia 

Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST

Beth Gibbons, Polish National Radio Symphony Orch & Krzysztof Penderecki - Henryk- Górecki's Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)

Explode Into Colors - Quilts EP

Pale Dian - Feral Birth

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Exhalants - 

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

            

---

---

---

Card:

• Queen of Swords - Watery aspect of Air, or the Emotional application of the Intellect

• Prince of Cups - Airy aspect of Water, or the reverse of above, Emotions honed by Intellect

• Princess of Wands - Earthen aspect of Fire, or the physical world as manipulated through the Will

I'm looking at this as a direct commentary on my creative week, which, despite some fairly major breakthroughs plot-wise, has been weak. My Emotions undermine my understanding of what I need to do to achieve my goal, I then turn around and overrule my emotions with logic, but only for a short time before the material world around me sidetracks my work and drains my Will.

I'm trying to sell this week to myself as a "recharge." Let's see if that's true.

 

---

---

---

Duration:

See what I mean? This is... embarrassing. I knew I didn't clock that many hours this week, but this is insane. Granted, my folks were here for five days and I worked, but still. Inexcusable. 

This is 7/14/23 through 7/20/23. Starting today I need to re-engage.

---

---

---

I'd Rather Be...

Just watched the final episode of The Bear Season Two. We've been dragging this out because I love it so much, but after doing episodes 8 and 9 Monday night, there was no way we could not do 10 last night. Emotional wrecking ball - good, bad, ugly... ALL the feels. I don't think I've ever seen a show quite like this, and these 'real-time' episodes just blow me away.

I've always loved Pearl Jam's Animal; Out of the 12 (?) tracks on the original release of Pearl Jam's second album Vs., the opening two tracks, Go and Animal, are among the best the band ever did. The album slides into wishy-washy territory from there for me; I dig about three more songs on it, and while I don't necessarily dislike the rest, none of them are in the "I have to have that available to me for when I need to hear it" territory that Ten and those five or so songs from Vs. are. I wish I could say I connected with anything else Pearl Jam ever did after this, but aside from giving a thumbs up to a few songs from the first album with Matt Cameron on drums (2002's Riot Act, I think), I respect the hell out of them and 100% think they tow their own line, but just never really cared. Still, this was PERFECTLY placed in this episode, and I applaud everyone involved in making this tour de force of a show that is as bite-sized as shows tend to come these days (short episodes, short seasons, nothing missing. Trim the fat, Jeff).

---

---

---

NCBD:

Small Pull this week, but I'm looking forward to both of these titles quite a bit.

I know I'm still relatively new to Something is Killing the Children, picking up with the series around issue #16, but having this recent hiatus in the middle of the current storyline was difficult, to say the least. I've been waiting for this book to come back with a fervor I don't possess very often these days, so I can't wait to read this one. NOTE: That's a variant cover I posted above; almost no way I'm going to end up with that, but still wanted to post it, because hot damn, that's rad!!!

I LOVE that, so far, the X-Men books are sticking to Magneto's death. It's so funny; I've always disliked the Magneto character, and just when he becomes one of my favorites, he's gone. Thus is life, and thus is good freakin' writing. I'm not foolish enough to think ol' Mags will stay dead, but for now, in the era where none of the mutants ever die for good because resurrection is a plot point, having a meaningful, lasting death of a major character is thrilling. 

Also, I really love the 'team' in X-Men: Red. It's not really a team at all, and feels a bit like a super Sci-Fi version of my favorite era of the book, Claremont's Dissolution and Rebirth, when the team took the Reavers' old base in the abandoned town in the Australian Outback. 

---

---

---

Back:

My good friend Jonathan Grimm sent me a link to a Kickstarter some friends of his are doing. I backed the instant I read the first paragraph of the recap: 

When Black Sabbath (not the Beatles) became the world’s most famous band, the universe was changed, musically and otherwise. Lost arts, like Alchemy, were made common, schools taught about transfiguration and alternate science, Demons were summoned and some stuck around.

Drumsticks of Doom sounds awesome and these guys are in their last 37 hours and they are oh so close, so if you're even remotely interested, go HERE and throw down!

---

---

---

Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Jim Willaims - Possessor OST

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Agnes Obel - Aventine

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

 

• Seven of Swords

• VI: The Lovers

• Seven of Wands

Two sevens and a six, eh? Numbers alone, this shows steps, consecutive or otherwise. Seven of Swords (Intellect) and Seven of Wands (Will) can work together or against one another. Combined with The Lovers, I'd say it's a harmonious union. 

---

---

---