Bad-ass new track from Memorials, a group consisting of Matthew Simms from Wire and Verity Susman. Really cool stuff, and they are recording an album, so there will be more. Head on over to their Bandcamp and give 'em a follow; pretty sure only good things can come of that.
Watch:
The Coffee Table was not what I had anticipated. That said, the thing I like most about this film is that from what I've seen, absolutely no one is saying too much about it online. That's good. Go in blind.
Is it disturbing? Yes, but not depraved - to me that's the big difference between what I can handle and cannot. This one? No problem, but it may fuck some people up. You've been warned, but also, it's a definite recommendation. Brother, you don't know tension until you see this one. Caye Casas NAILED this one.
Read:
I've only read one novel by author Paul Tremblay - Head Full of Ghosts - but it's a doozy that left an impact. He's had a couple books released since then, and although my buddy Jonathan Grimm always recommends them, I've held off. Well, I think this is the next one for me:
I love everything about the title and the cover art, and while you can't judge a book by its cover, I'm fairly certain this one will not disappoint. This is where I normally put in the solicitation, however, I haven't read that. I quite purposely know nothing about this novel, which I think is a good thing. I only have a few chapters left in Mike Bockoven's FantasticLand, so this is probably up next.
Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today
Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Déjá-vu
Television - Marquee Moon
Pink Floyd - Animals
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - T.V.M.A.L.S.V.
Various - Singles OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Swords
• Nine of Wands
• Ten of Wands
Interesting to have a succession of two cards in the same suit. Ace of Swords is an intellectual breakthrough, Nine of Wands is the climax that leads to the Ten of Wands' Closure. What's that? Finally finishing languishing projects? Hallelujah.
Cold Cave is pretty hit-or-miss with me. I adore 2011's Cherish the Light Years but haven't really clicked as hard with any of the other albums by the band that I've listened to. This new track makes me feel like the still unannounced record on the horizon could go either way. It just feels like the energy barely contained in the nine tracks on Light Years is perpetually contained inside that album. Nothing else I've heard from the band lives up to that. Still, this is a great new song, especially that coda!
Watch:
Joko Anwar's Nightmares and Daydreams has landed on, of all places, Netflix. Time to dig in:
I really took a shine to Indonesian Horror back circa 2020 during the Pandemic. Long days spent after short shifts, laying on the couch falling deep down Shudder rabbit holes. The Indonesian one still resounds with an impressive eeriness, and Anwar's Impetigore and Satan's Slaves made an impact. I kind of dug The Forbidden Door when I finally caught it last year, but the ending disappointed me a bit. Still, compelling, and I was curious to see what Anwar would do with a shorter format.
Unfortunately, the first episode, Old House, starts very strong and, by the end, devolves into some pretty awful CGI that just tanked it for me. I still intend on watching more, but I'm pretty bummed by this opening. This is the same deal Netflix gave GDT for Cabinet of Curiosities, seven episodes that are really stand-alone, hour-long movies, so this first one is not necessarily a gage for what's coming. I just expected more.
Read:
I finished Stephen Graham Jones' The Angel of Indian Lake last week. Man, what a fantastic ending to Jade's story. I will say that there's a sequence in here that felt a little... wrong, but nothing that would prevent me from giving this series a high recommendation. After Indian Lake? I headed straight into FantasticLand:
This one has been hyped quite a bit to me, but always by people whose taste I 100% trust. Which meant when it didn't quite click at first, I was a bit sad. After the opening set-up shifted into the actual interviews of survivors, however, I was hooked. About halfway through in two days, I'm finding it difficult to put this one down, and I really love how the story develops.
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Alice in Chains - Live
Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Mastodon - Once More Round the Sun
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
Peeping Tom - Eponymous
Godflesh - Purge
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It?
The Ravenonettes - Sing
Shellac - To All Trains
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Cups
• Four of Swords
• XX: Judgement
Emotional struggles that ultimately lead to a new stability, just remember - everything in its right place.
That's an off-the-cuff read with a little help from the Grimoire. I think it's referencing the ongoing mental issues I have concerning K's mother living with us. There's an unbelievably volatile amount of cognitive dissonance that I live with in my brain every day, and there are times when it feels as though it will drive me mad. Maybe things are getting better, though.
I am happy to report the new Man Man album is awesome! This one dropped last week, but I've had a hard time getting around to listening past an initial time. This song, however, made an indelible mark. Can't wait to really dig in this weekend.
Order Carrot on StringsHERE.
NCBD:
I haven't had a chance to post my NCBD picks this week yet. Better late than never. Here's what I picked up:
The best book I'm reading monthly at the moment. This one just transforms in the most interesting, natural, seductive ways issue by issue. Love the character development - especially in this latest issue.
Shockwave and the Combaticons arrive on a Space Bridge from Cybertron? Holy. Crap. There's something going on in between the lines here that makes me think that, just maybe, the Autobots aren't the noble good guys we have always known them to be. Not that they're evil, but what looks like heroism on our world may come from a darker place in their history on the home planet. We'll see.
I missed the first issue of Dan Watters and Ram V's Creature From the Black Lagoon Lives! when it dropped a few weeks ago, but snatched up a second printing this week because in our house, the Creature Rules! Well, K and I are both big fans of the Universal Monsters in general, but this guy and big Frank are our favorites. With great art and colors by Matthew Roberts and Dave Stewart respectively, I really dug this issue!
And then there's a new book by Zac Thompson that sounded pretty cool. I missed grabbing it, however, Ryan and Walter at Rick's ordered me a copy, so it's a'coming.
From Dark Horse's solicitation:
"A group of climate scientists working in a remote base camp on the Australian outback discover an impossible landform. They venture inside expecting the unexpected, and the titular Unbeing delivers. True to the traditions of cosmic horror, they discover an anomalous environment that defies everything they think they know about the world."
Sounds pretty cool, and Thompson has some killer books.
Watch:
Ben Bigelow's debut feature Thine Ears Shall Bleed recently got a trailer:
Maybe it has more to do with it's Doom Metal-ish title, but I'm definitely curious about this one. Looks a bit like The Wind and What Josiah Saw. I'm not seeing a hard release date yet, but I'll be keeping my eyes out for it.
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Jar Of Flies
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In
Ween - Chocolate & Cheese
Pigface - Notes From the Underground
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Edition)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magick
Alice in Chains - Dirt
The Twilight Singers - Dynamite Steps
Bandsplain Podcast - Remembering Steve Albini
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Swords - The Firey aspect of Air or the Will as applied to Intellect.
• Nine of Pentacles - Climax; Accomplishment of Earthly concerns, i.e., materializing the idea into a tangible form, i.e., finishing the books.
• Ace of Swords - Breakthrough in operations. Rethinking how I do things.
Time to think a bit harder about those projects that are near completion. This will lead to accomplishment and a breakthrough that may alter the way I approach my creativity.
I drove into Chicago over the weekend and saw The Raveonettes play the Bottom Lounge on Monday night. The video above is from George Devereux's YouTube channel - lots of awesome videos like this one over there, so mosey on over, check it out, and perhaps give the man a follow.
Anyway, this trip was 100% last minute. Upon returning from Chicago on May 27th, I realized The Raveonettes were only playing ten dates on the tour to support their new covers album, "The Raveonettes... Sing," and Chicago was the closest to me, so I made a snap decision to buy tickets and attend.
The Raveonettes have long been one of my favorite bands, but before they held such a lofty status in my heart, I passed a couple of opportunities to see them. Then, living in L.A. for the period over which they released no fewer than six records—three of which are my favorite by the band—I missed every opportunity to see them, where they often played the gorgeous El Rey Theatre.
I really don't know what I was thinking - there was a large part of my life in the city of broken angels where we had so little money (or so I thought!) that I didn't go to hardly any shows, but whatever. The point is, having the band then all but disappear after 2017's 2016 Atomized kind of broke my heart. When I saw this tour, I knew I had to see them.
And, of course, I was right. They were miraculous live!!! I broke into small sobs probably ten times during the show - there's something about Sharin Foo and Sune Rose Wagner's vocal harmonies and melody lines when combined with Wagner's Rock-a-Billy-meets-Robert-Smith guitar lines that overwhelm me with emotion, even more so live.
Here's the setlist, courtesy of Setlist.FM.
1) When Night Is Almost Done
2) Hallucinations
3) Lust
4) Dead Sound
5) Blush
6) Railroad Tracks
7) Love Can Destroy Everything
8) Attack of the Ghost Riders
9) Veronica Fever
10) Do You Believe Her
11) My Tornado
12) The Enemy
13) Endless Sleeper
14) Sisters
15) Heartbreak Stroll
16) That Great Love Sound
17) Recharge & Revolt
Encore:
18) Remember
19) Love In a Trashcan
20) Aly, Walk With Me
Watch:
Although I've been avoiding everything released leading up to seeing Osgood Perkins' new film LONGLEGS, last week I caught the full trailer in the theatre. I'm posting it here and can 100% say I actually think this is one of the best trailers I've seen in years. They show so many intriguing, disconnected images that it revs up the desire to finally see the film, but gives away absolutely nothing. There's a big, obvious "gottasee" that happily dances around with the utmost tact. That said, I'd still prefer to not see it again. I just want this movie here now!
Also, just have to say, although I haven't been a fan of Perkins' other films, this one really has me excited, and pictures of him wearing a Mr. Bungle T-Shirt at a recent premiere only strengthen my resolve to give him and this film a fair shake.
Some classic Thou. I still prefer the album art on the old CD, but I dig that the band eventually aligned all the older records through the artwork.
Something about this image just fits the music so well. It's cold, lonely and a little eerie.
Read:
Two of my old compatriots from the Los Angeles chapter of The Horror Writer's Association are publishing a novel this coming Friday that I'm dying to read.
Placerita comes to us courtesy of the fine folks at Cemetery Dance are releasing this one. Here's the solicitation from the Publisher's website:
"It's 1928, and something strange is afoot in the desert town of Placerita just north of Los Angeles. When young biologist Alexis Crawford discovers an unidentifiable specimen washed up in the wake of a devastating flood, it begins a journey that will reveal the dark conspiracies at the heart of California and the secret known only to a few: that beneath the City of Angels is an ancient world of tunnels lined in gold, a world that is home to the legendary Lizard People.... Like a cross between 'Chinatown' and the biggest conspiracy theory of them all, Morton and Palisano’s 'Placerita' addresses the intrigue behind 1928’s catastrophic collapse of the St. Francis Dam, corruption, organized religion and saurian urban legends in a fleet new noir that wastes little time in getting to the good stuff." PLACERITA is an intriguing premise, set against the ambiance of the 1920's and steeped in the culture of early 20th century California
You can order this one from the Cemetery Dance website right HERE, or wherever books are sold.
Play:
Being that before I bought a Nintendo Switch two years ago, I hadn't owned a video game console since the original Nintendo, I missed a lot of games and gaming culture. That's not really an issue - I'm about 10-20% gamer, no more. I just don't have time, as any time I spend on a game is time I regard as stealing from writing. That said, I do steal some time every once in a while, so now that I have a Switch, I'm constantly on the lookout for cool games I missed being ported over. Case in point:
Also, being that my interests lie in the Horror realms, Bloody Disgusting is a great place to find out about stuff like the above. Here's a link to the article on this one. John Carpenter's The Thing as a video game... I've heard some things about this one over the years and am very much looking forward to the creeping fear and isolation.
Playlist:
Thou - Umbilical
Thou - Summit
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
Man Man - Carot on Strings
Man Man - Life Fantastic
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
††† - Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
The Raveonettes - Observator
Soup Horse - The Choir (Single)
Soap Horse - Carrara 20/10/23
The Ravenonettes - 2016 Atomized
Card:
Back to my mini Thoth deck for today's pull:
• Princess of Disks - Stability; graciousness. Good intent.
• Knight of Swords - Intellectually soaring; intelligence on fire - beast mode!
• Knight of Disks - Industrious and patient.
Returning to work tomorrow will be a challenge, but I'll more than rise to it.
If you need a reason to love Thou beyond the music, this is it. Order the new album UmbilicalHERE. I think Byran Funck's vocals are the closest I've ever heard to recreating that infamous "Stroke Me" effect Mike Patton used in old-school Mr. Bungle. And regardless of how much sludge this band piles on, I still hear the Staley-era Alice in Chains. Fucking love it.
Watch:
Joe Bob and Darcy did my favorite movie of all time last night. Here are those Drive-in totals:
Loved this episode.
Playlist:
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Dean Hurley - Tales From the Library of the Occult: Flower
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Warning - Why Can Bodies Fly (single)
Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands
INXS - Kick
Thou - Umbilical
Card:
One card from Missi's Raven Deck to send me on my way to Chicago to see The Ravenonettes on Monday:
Wednesday was an incredible day for new album announcements. I'd been expecting David Lynch to drop something because of a video he posted last week, but The Jesus Lizard's Rack from Ipecac was 100% surprise. This is the band's first album since 1998's Blue, and while there is a lot I do like about their two Capitol Records, I can already tell by this first single "Hide & Seek," that I like Paul Allen's production on this one way better (RIP Steve Albini, who produced their iconic albums for Touch & Go back in the 90s).
Also, Mac is back! That's right, original drummer Mac McNeilly is once again behind the skins. The stars have aligned!
Last night, K and I went to see Ishana Shyamalan's The Watchers.
Despite seeing this or a slightly different trailer before pretty much every movie I've attended in the theatre for the last month or two, I went in with a fairly open mind. All I'll say is, if you're an M. Knight fan, you'll probably dig this. It was very well made and had excellent performances, but I did not care for the script, characters or the film overall. I kind of felt a weird parallel to when I saw The Village, back on opening night in 2004. With it in a half-arsed kind of way until the last act, when I kind of just want to get up and walk out.
* My good friend Missi laughs at my growing frustration at pre-show "entertainment." She cooly arrives at just the right time every time she goes to the theatre (about as often as us), but somehow, I just can't time that right.
Playlist:
The Jesus Lizard - Show
Shellac - To All Trains
Big Black - Lungs
Various - The Lounge Ax Defense and Relocation Compact Disc
Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast
The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Swords
• Five of Wands
• Queen of Wands
Perhaps cryptically, I have "Motivation as Will" written in the Grimoire for Knight of Swords. This is the Firey aspect of Air, or the Will as applied to Intellect. Five of Wands is Conflict in Earthly matters, and Queen of Wands, or the Emotional aspect of Will.
All any of this tells me at the moment - when it's 12:47 AM and I'm tired as hell - are we're all a big o' mess O' trouble. Contradictions and good intentions, but if you recognize that and we start there, we can move on and perhaps conquer and shape some of what makes us indecisive and try and turn conflict into stability.
We're getting a new album from David Lynch and Chrysta Bell! They dropped the first song yesterday, as Lynch cryptically promised on his social media last week. You can pre-order Cellophane Memories from the always wonderful Sacred Bones if you go to their site HERE or David Lynch's Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
Here's one I'm dying to watch but have thus far successfully fought the urge to do so, simply because I'm certain I'll see it play ahead of movies in the theatre.
I can't wait to see this movie, and I have nothing but the utmost faith in Fede Alvarez. I'm just more than a little concerned that what happened to Evil Dead Rise after seeing the trailer so many times could happen to this. Chances are, that's not going to happen, because this will be a better movie, and I've already been told by several people that this trailer doesn't actually give away much. But I think of that "Mommy's with the maggots now" scene and wonder if it just might have been a truly terrifying scene if I hadn't already been inoculated of it through repetition. I consider it a fucking miracle that we have Alvarez on a franchise I love and want the best for - one that needs more than a little help, let's face it. So... I'll continue to wait. But it's here now, just in case I change my mind (like I eventually will).
Playlist:
David Lynch and Chrystabell - Sublime Eternal Love (pre-release single)
The Jesus Lizard - Hide & Seek (pre-release single)
I think I'd heard titterings about this at some point, but when it popped up in my feed this evening, I was kind of blown the f*ck away. From the 3-Song EP out on Metropolis Records now! Order HERE. Apparently a full album is due this fall, and hearing this now, I'm on board. This 100% retains that Chameleons emotional blow, without sounding forced or tired. Love it.
NCBD:
Here's this week's Pull, and I'm pretty excited for these:
The untold tale of that time the U.S. Army sent Frank Castle behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War to kill the captured Nick Fury. Written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Jacen Burrows. Can't think of something I want to read more at this moment.
It took a little longer than probably any of us reading it expected, but TheLast Ronin II issue 2 finally arrives today. Glad to still have a dose of TMNT for a while, especially in this Miller-esque Dystopian Future-verse.
If Scartlett's mini-series is even half as good as either Duke or Cobra Commander, we're in for a treat. Curious to see how the Energon Universe handles the Arashikage.
Carter F**king Burke! Who would have thought I'd enjoy seeing him breathe after his part in James Cameron's Aliens? Really digging this series.
Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out. No, seriously, I will approach this final issue with a modicum of reverence because, despite months now of griping here at the end, I'll miss reading the X books these last couple of years. Luckily, I never went back and filled in the gap between House and Powers and Inferno, so there's still a year or two of actual Hickman-penned issues for me to jump into.
Watch:
While I found Goodnight Mommy to be pointlessly mean-spirited and just plain awful, I'm a huge fan of Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz's The Lodge. Likewise, after watching this trailer for their new film The Devil's Bath, I'm quite looking forward to it.
While this trailer feels arduously long, I honestly applaud the fact that they don't really tell you all that much. Or at least that's how it feels. Also, there are a handful of images in here near the end that will stay with me for some time.
Playlist:
Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn 2017
Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground
Tennis System - Technicolour Blind
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast
Frank Black and the Catholics - Snake Oil
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Revocation - Teratogenesis (deluxe)
Revocation - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Eight of Pentacles - More transformation of Earthly assets
• XIX: The Sun - From the Grimoire, "Taking the Pill will open your eyes."
• Page of Swords - The Earthly aspect of Air. "apply your intellect to something useful!"
From 1987's The Lion and the Cobra. Outstanding song from an outstanding album. Makes 1987 feel so close I can almost touch it.
Watch:
It's been a while since I'd enjoyed John Carpenter's In the Mouth Of Madness. I'm guesting on John Trafton and Mile Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast next week for the second part of their 1994 retrospective (part 1 is HERE), and Madness was one of the four films we're covering.
Maybe it's because I just rewatched Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, too, but I'd never realized the influence that both the NOES and Hellraiser series had on this flick until now. I'm not sure if that influence comes more from writer Michael De Luca (who also wrote Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) or JC himself, but it's definitely there. Also, and I know everyone who loves this movie knows this, but the brilliance of combining Stephen King's popularity with H.P. Lovecraft's ethos in Sutter Cane is one of the great triumphs of homage to either author, in a world where 75% of Horror is homage to one or the other (or both). I'd add that making Jürgen Porchnow look like Neil Gaiman - who would have been rounding the corner on finishing the original Sandman series for DC's Vertigo at the time, adds just the right amount of prescience about Gaiman's inevitable place in the pantheon King and Lovecraft reside over.
Playlist:
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
The Reverend Horton Heat - Whole New Life
The Raveonettes - Sing
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Cups - Emotional fulfillment.
• IX: The Hermit - I need a period to regroup. Badly.
• Three of Pentacles - Growth in Earthly terms. Not sure if this is responsibility maturation or windfall. Windfall would be nice.
It only recently came to my attention over the weekend that Watain released a killer Live album last year, Die in Fire: Live in Hell Stockholm 2022. Here's Reaping Death, one of the stand-out tracks on a really great live album. Reminds me a bit of Slayer's Decade of Aggression.
Watch:
Recently, I subscribed to a streaming channel on Prime called ScreenPix. This is a $2.99, bottom-of-the-barrel kind of streamer, however, there were a handful of flix that drew me in, and at $2.99, well, no real damage. Here's what I've watched on there so far:
This was the flick that brought me in. Missi and I recently interviewed Horror Author Extraordinaire Ivy Tholen on The Horror Vision, and as part of that episode, we asked her to pick one movie to talk about. Ivy picked Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers.
Next, I can remember I, Madman on the video shelf going way back (I often confuse it with Dr. Giggles - another flick I still need to see - for some reason. What I didn't know about I, Madman is it was directed by Tibor Takács, Director of The Gate.
Finally, last night, I fired up Klaus Kinski as a peepin' Tom Nazi holdover in David Schmoeller's 1986 what-the-fuck-a-thon, Crawlspace.
Not nearly as 'great' as I wanted it to be, Crawlspace is still very much worth a watch just for Kinski.
Read:
I am absolutely blazing through Stephen Graham Jones' The Angel of Indian Lake. ~250 pages in, this book is a clusterfuck Horror movie in prose; there's SO much going on, an enormous body count, and we still don't really know who or what is behind it all.
I've seen some blurbs with people calling this ' a consuming mess,' but I don't think it's that at all. There's a difference between someone who can juggle a lot of different objects at once and make it look easy and someone who can just barely keep them all in the air. This feels effortless in its complexity. I'm taking notes, believe you me.
Playlist:
Shellac - To All Trains
The Raveonettes - Sing
The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
Sleep - Dopesmoker
Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky
Frank Sinatra - Songs for Young Lovers
Blut Aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age
Blut Aus Nord - The Mythical Beast of Rebellion
The Used - Eponymous
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry
Watain - Die in Fire: Live in Hell (Stockholm 2022)
Burzum - Aske
Burzum - Filosofem
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Eight of Swords
• Ten of Wands
• XI - Justice
Transformation, Endings and Just deserts. I'm thinking this is a nod toward Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, which I've just come back around on to finish.
A second single from the forthcoming album Wild God, out August 30th. Pre-order HERE.
This track is fantastic, but there's still something about every Bad Seeds record since Push the Sky Away that bothers me. I love the aforementioned Sky Away, which definitely ushered in an entirely new era for the band, but I kind of feel like they've been stuck in that mode ever since, with diminishing returns. Diminishing returns not because the music isn't great but because I guess I'm used to the boys changing their sound up every few records. I feel like, if one new record could just be something new, then these last few would really fall into place for me. Either way, one of the greatest artists and bands of all time, in my opinion.
Watch:
K and I did a double feature of Until the Light Takes Us and Lords of Chaos over the last two nights; I've seen both films several times, but they never fail to pack a punch.
It was especially interesting watching Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos again now, as we very recently watched his Netflix series Clark with Bill Skarsgård; some definite similarities.
Not sure if that really comes through in the trailer; however, Åkerlund always gets a recommendation from me, so if you have Netflix, Clark is definitely worth checking out. Also based on a real-life, larger-than-life personality and the "truth and lies" approach.
Read:
With all the running around I've been doing, it took me a way longer time to finish re-reading Stephen Graham Jones' Don't Fear the Reaper, but I did yesterday morning. Glorious. Next up - and I am excited - book three of the Indian Lake Trilogy:
Fifty pages in and this one has already made me tear up more than once. Jade Daniels is such an amazing, engrossing character, made so real by the mania for the genre a lot of us share. Can't recommend these books enough.
Playlist:
The Raveonettes - Sing
Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST
Fantômas - Delirium Cordia
The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God (pre-release singles)
Rodney Crowell - Triage
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Five of Pentacles (Disks)
• Eight of Swords
• Four of Wands
Conflict, followed by transformation (possibly through just desserts), and finally stability. Shit man, that's life in a nutshell.
How do I apply this to anything in my life right now? Like, today? Weeeelllll... I have a meeting later today with a transportation vendor that has been eating a lot of mental and emotional real estate. Feels like it might be conflict-heavy. I miss the old days, when you could just punch someone in the face. Maybe out of this, we'll achieve the stability we need to make my job a metric shit-ton easier.
Nothing will ever replace Barry Adamson's 1998's As Above, So Below as my favorite Barry Adamson album, but this? This might be my favorite song he's ever recorded.
NCBD:
Wednesday is the best day of the five-day week because it's New Comic Book Day. Although my pull lists are growing shorter, I still love this day to the core of my being. Here's what I'm picking up today:
The final issue of the third mini-series entry in David Dastmalchian's Count Crowley series. I still haven't read any of these, but I'm familiar enough with the concept to think I'll probably tear into this one from the first issue now that it's finished. Gotta pick up those other two trades...
One more after this, and both are Kieron Gillen, so this should be a proper slog. Let's see what ridiculous bullsh*t they come up with to end the Nathanial Essex Dominion storyline.
It occurs to me - if Marvel is taking the X-Books back to the pre-Krakoa paradigm of individual superhero teams, maybe they can course-correct one change that Hickman ushered in and Gillen really played up that I hate: Mr. Sinister as a dandy fop. I much prefer the version in the 80s, an evil, brooding masochist, to the one of the Krakoa era. In fact, I'd have to say changing Sinister's disposition is the only thing about Hickman's run I don't like, and it's really reached a crescendo of annoyance with all the Sinister Clones running around, complete with different card suites on their foreheads. I mean, I guess it really doesn't matter if they change him back, as I'll be gone.
I really can't say enough good things about The Six Fingers and its sister book, The One Hand. I think both series conclude next month, so I'd definitely recommend picking up the trades if you're into the idea of a good, quasi-cyber punk, Blade Runner-ish Neo-Noir story.
Watch:
Now, please.
Is it just me, or has the release date for the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things been pushed back like, four or five times now? I need a fixed point on the calendar so I know when to start rewatching the series from the beginning.
Few mainstream things in 2024 are worthy of the hype. Stranger Things is, in my opinion.
Playlist:
LCD Soundsystem - New Body Rhumba (single)
LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize (single)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps (single)
Mr. Bungle - Violenza Domestica ("single")
LCD Soundsystem - Eponymous
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Naked Raygun - Over the Overlords
Mad Love - White With Foam
Mr. Bungle - Eponymous
Mr. Bungle - California
The Raveonettes - Sing
Phil Collins - Face Value
Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
High on Fire - Surrounded By Thieves
The Flesh Easters - I Used to Be Pretty
Card:
Back to my trusty, original Thoth deck for today's Pull.
• Ace of Disks
• 10 of Swords: Ruin
• 9 of Disks: Gain
A possible monetary breakthrough, but apparently one of a tempestuous nature, as the line between loss and gain appears to be paper thin. Curious if this has to do with some stock positions I've been watching act erratically over the last three weeks.
From a still unannounced forthcoming album due October 11, 2024, on Nuclear Blast Records, I don't think I can dig a band more. After discovering these guys within the last year, I'm falling head over heels for Oranssi Pazuzu and this new single only further cements that.
Bungle:
This... is an unexpected miracle:
Quote Unquote1991-1999 is a 6 LP vinyl boxset that includes remastered editions of Mr. Bungle's original three Warner Bros. albums: 1991's Eponymous, 1995's Disco Volante, and 1999's California. All three of those records rank among my favorite, most influential pieces of music. Disco Volante—despite the fact that I haven't listened to it in some time—remains one of my favorite pieces of music ever recorded (right behind Fantômas's Delirium Cordia). Here's the solicitation for the boxset:
"6LP boxset of Mr. Bungle's three legendary albums on Warner Records: Mr. Bungle, Disco Volante & California. Each album comes as a 2LP Gatefold, all packaged together in a metallic foil box. Mastered by Scott Hull exclusively for vinyl from the original mixes (some for the first time ever). Features two alternate takes of inter-program material from the Bungle archives"
I'll say this was a little confusing to order because everything I found linked to this release navigates back to Rhino Records' page for their 1000-copy yellow vinyl variant that sold out instantly. I scooped up my standard vinyl copy from Acoustic Sounds, HERE.
Read:
Traveling again, so I'm stalled out on Stephen Graham Jones' Don't Fear the Reaper because I didn't want to carry a Hardcover book with me this time, so I'm picking at Clark Ashton's Smith's story "The Black Abbot of Puthuum."
Smith's prose is hit-or-miss with me; his "The Door to Saturn" is one of my all-time favorite Fantasy stories. The Black Abbot is one I've attempted to read before and not made it through, so we'll see how it fairs this time.
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Night Moves
Boston - Eponymous
The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Scissor Sisters - Eponymous
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Card:
While traveling, I have my trusty mini-Thoth deck that Missi gifted me once upon a time. Love this deck. Here's today's Pull, followed by a caveat:
• Queen of Cups
• Ace of Swords
• Seven of Wands: Valor
Emotional or "Watery" Aspect of Emotion, Intellectual Breakthrough and Victory (Netzach). This seems to tell of an internal accomplishment; a breakthrough with one of the (many) things bothering me. This has been affecting my sleep for some time, which is one thing to deal with when you're home and work from home, quite another when you're on the road.
Caveat: Before I retrieved my travel deck, I found an online "Daily Tarot Reading" site. Here's that spread:
• XV: The Devil
• I: The Magician
• XVI: The Tower
Talk about a different reading! This suggests my day will be filled with Tension, and that I'll be looking to tear down the old and start anew. I post this here just to record the data, as I really put no faith in an online reading service.
From the forthcoming album GREIF, out Agust 23rd. Pre-order HERE.
Watch:
Last night, I had the privilege of watching an advance copy of Director Chris Cronin's new film The Moor. Here's a trailer:
I cannot give a film a higher recommendation than I give for this one. The Moor is suspense with a pure Horror center. Ostensibly a slow-burn about child abduction and the aftermath, this one really dances a fine line with the inherently 'thin' moors that turn England's North into a place not easily tread by humans. I won't say whether it ever crosses that line, however, Cinematographer Sam Cronin really delivers the vast and sweeping eeriness of the Yorkshire Moors. Add to that the haunting score by Nir Perlman and this one has a strong otherworldly feel that will suck you right in and hold you until the end.
Playlist:
Zombi - Direct Inject
Revolting Cocks - Beers Steers and Queers
The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Roaring Night
Shellac - To All Trains
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIII: Death
• Nine of Swords
• Two of Pentacles
Change, climax and partnership. A direct reference to something that has been driving me near-to-mad the last few days. I'll leave it at that for now.
Is this new single the harbinger of a new Besnard Lakes record? I certainly hope so. LOVE this; it's the Lakes at their Dreamiest, and they can get pretty damn dreamy. Then it kicks in and you feel like you're soaring through the clouds. Guess they picked the perfect title.
You can buy the single over on the group's Bandcamp, HERE.
NCBD:
First morning back after our mini vacation in Mississippi and I had a fantastic Comic Pull to look forward to. Let's get into what I brought home from Rick's Comic City yesterday! NOTE: I wrote all this before I picked up my comics yesterday, I just didn't have a chance to post this one until today.
I CANNOT wait to read Cobra Commander #5! Everything has been leading to this, and with the Destro and Scarlet mini-series starting in June, this should set us up for some interesting developments in Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe!
Still really digging this return to Vertigo with John Constantine: Dead in America. The book has been a road trip across the States for JC, and I'm not sure if that was done since Brian Azzarello's run back in the early 00s. There are so many ghosts for a wayward Con-Man/Magician to tap into in the depths of this country, and so far, we've seen some doozies in classic Vertigo commentary-but-not-commentary style.
The final issue of Fall of the House of X. That just leaves Rise #5 next week and X-Men 35 the week after. Then I. Am. Out. Whewwww. I will say that I've decided to sell off a lot of last year's six months' worth of X-Tiles, but I'm not going to part with Fall. I haven't loved this series, but it's worth keeping for no other reason than the cover of Issue 2. Plus, I'd say Gerry Duggan has done a great job dealing with the steaming plate of >>>> Gillen and the Editorial Department handed him.
What can I say other than I miss this book so much when it's away, that I'm always super happy to see it when it comes back.
The cover says it all: Springer!
Ash continues his trek through the future to find his way back to the past. Not gonna lie - turning one of the three Necronomicons into a demon baby reeks of Grogu, and while I consider myself a fan of both the Mandolorian and Grogu, I've begun to roll my eyes at the proliferation of the 'child' character in genre as a result of Grogu's popularity.
Watch:
Upon returning home last night, I found a couple packages waiting for me. One was a recent Vinegar Syndrome order wherein I purchased BluRay copies of Ted Geoghegan's Brooklyn 45 and Lorcan Finnegan's 2016 feature film debut Without Name. I can't wait to tear into both of these, but it'd been a couple years since my first and only other viewing of Without Name, and I'd spent a large part of my reading time during the trip to MS reading about Folk Horror, so that proved to be my priority.
The film is brilliant; a quiet contemplation of the haunted nature of the Irish Countryside, but what I really want to talk about here is the transfer, because this one is fantastic! I wish I could find a still or two from this one - a lot of times, BluRay.com will have side-by-side screenshot comparisons from different releases, but Vinegar Syndrome's release is still young, so that's not yet the case. Please believe me when I tell you that VS did an absolutely stellar job with this film.
Playlist:
Tangerine Dream - Strange Behavior OST
Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation
Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Frank Black and the Catholics - Eponymous
Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Robot God - Portal Within
Melvins - Tarantula Heart
Saigon Blue Rain - Oko
The Cure - Disintegration
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk)
Pastor T.L. Barret and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail
One of the shorter tracks on Amigo the Devil's latest record Yours Until the War is Over, however, I wanted to post "Agnes" because, in listening to it a few times in a row last night, I realized I'd kind of glossed over this track on previous listens. The arranging here is subtle but fantastic.
You can head over to the official Amigo the Devil website HERE to order the album.
Watch:
We released a new episode of Drinking with Comics a few days ago. In this episode, Shinabargar and I discuss one of our favorite Batman stories of all time: Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson's Gothic.
Also, on the new episode of The Horror Vision that dropped today, we deep-dive into Lars Von Triers' The House That Jack Built. As has become our standard, the YouTube version of the show has a full array of visual accompaniments if you want to "hear" it there.
Here's a spoiler: I hated this film. Despite that, I found some really cool ideas in it to discuss.
