Brand New - At The Bottom

This song still hits just as hard now as it did the first day that I heard it. We need some new Brand New. God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me is a masterpiece, and Daisy is even better - there's a guttural, haunting quality to this band's music. In it I can feel layers of childhood eclipsed by the inevitable rise of age; the drowning of promise and dreams with the unfortunate responsibilities life tends to push down our throats.

It's years ago now, but here's the review I wrote for Daisy after I first heard it.

TV Funhouse

Probably the most fucked up, awesome show EVER. It's not really a surprise that this didn't go more than 8 episodes. Watching these puppets snort Christmas Cheer and assault unwitting passersby with their obnoxious caroling is just... disturbing. In the best possible way of course.

Mr. Brown ordered the set of both TV Funhouse and the best of TV Funhouse SNL and had them sent to my house. I'm sitting here with a pint enjoying the warped, twisted genius of Mr. Robert Smigel. Has it really been 13 freakin' years since this was on the air? Good lord...

god bless us Robert Smigel, each and every one of us.

1988 - The Year Marvel Comics Destroyed Pittsburgh

image courtesy of wikipedia.org

Wicked comics from the 80's - read about it on Joup!

Ministry - Twitch (full album)

You know, despite considering myself a pretty big Ministry fan since the early 90's I've never owned this album. I'm not even really all that familiar with it.

Ministry - Same Old Madness

It's always a trip to hear old Ministry. And I mean old as in the Arista years. Regardless, this is still pretty awesome and I'm kind of surprised a song like this wasn't eventually re-worked. It would have lent itself nicely to being 'industrialized' in the later incarnation of the group.

Revolting Cocks - You Often Forget (Live)

I'm not sure what year this is exactly, but it's OLD SCHOOL. It's been a Revolting Cocks kind of day. Beers, Steers and Queers and Linger Fickin' Good are regular staples of my everyday listening diet, but I cracked out the pre-Connelly Big Sexy Land yesterday and it's been stuck in my CD player off and on since.

T.O.M.B. - Uncovered Ancient Gateways

My favorite strain of Black Metal is the kind that pushes the boundaries. Blut Aus Nord is, thus far, the best example of this I've discovered. My good friend Chris told me about T.O.M.B. recently and it appears they are of the same vein, although judging by this, further along the spiral of noise, hence why they apparently refer to themselves as Black Noise instead of Black Metal. And if you read their 'Bio' here you will not regret it. Field recordings of haunted and bizarre places incorporated into their music? Awesome.

image courtesy of http://label.todestrieb.co.uk/

Moderat - Bad Kingdom

FINALLY!!! New Moderat hit when I wasn't looking. Awesome. I've put in a lot of miles with the first Moderat album. I've grown quite fond of walking around West LA to it in the mornings. It's a very powerful pull on my creative process and I almost consider it more a tool in that regard than a piece of music, much like how I learned to use DJ Shadow's Endtroducing (that's some powerful stuff there).

New Moderat album is due August 2nd on Monkeytown Records.

New Music From Ghostbox: Listening Center

A few years ago a combination of scribe Warren Ellis and Wire magazine got me into a little British label called Ghost Box. Ghost Box is associated with what some call the "Hauntology" movement and features releases by, among many others, such names as Belbury Poly, The Advisory Circle and Broadcast and the Focus Group (RIP Trish Keenan). I signed up for the label's wonderful newsletter, Ghost Box News and frequent their blog, belburyparishmagazine.blogspot. I've been behind on my emails and just realized the newest in their Study Series releases is from New York's Listening Center. Great stuff, somewhat evocative of 70's era Goblin. You can buy the vinyl or downloads at Ghost Box's site here.

Sean Murphy & Scott Snyder's The Wake

image courtesy of weeklycomicbookreview.com

The new series from Vertigo comics is excellent! Read about it in Thee Comic Book Column #43 on Joup!

Rosslyn Chapel Cymatics

Another great Cymetics-related video via The Center For Cymatics. You can read more about this here at the Journal for Cymatics website.

image courtesy of crystalinks.com

Came Back Haunted... by Photosensitive Epilepsy?

I can't watch it. I loved what I saw when I was finally able to sit down with my friend Michael and hit play on David Lynch's video for NIN's new single "Came Back Haunted". I am a NIN's fan, and I am a MASSIVE David Lynch fan, but the video actually threw my head out of whack for well over 24 hours. Now, I'm not sure if I am sensitive to bouts of photosensitive epilepsy, as suggested by the disclaimer at the beginning of the video. I know that I have not ever had epilepsy or any other kind of seizure that I am aware of, but this really messed with me BAD Friday night.

Now, this is strange, in that long time readers will remember my posting an electronic version of Brion Gysin's Dream Machine on this blog several years ago. I utilize the dream machine on a somewhat regular basis - this is a machine is made to marry the viewer's brainwaves to various frequencies via flashing patterns, thus inducing various states of consciousness. This has never bothered me, therefore I can only assume that there it is the exact frequency at which the Lynch video flickers that is doing very uncomfortable things to my brain. This fits with the definition of photosensitive epilepsy that I encountered on Wikipedia. 

The experience was pretty much terrifying, yet at the same time there was something... Occult about it. That's the wrong word, however I've been interested in epilepsy for years, since being introduced to the concept of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a kind of visionary or perhaps even transcendent occurrence, first in the pages of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, then in his The Filth. In reading about TLE on Epilepsy.com (here) I was a little unnerved to find that although actual physical seizures never arose (that I was aware of) this description somewhat describes experiences I've had for well over a decade, ever since I began practicing the Occult - a practice that has morphed and waned over the years but still remains of interest to me today, obviously - experiences that are pretty hard to sum up into words and have themselves morphed and waned over the years, from indescribable crystal clear memories of people and scenarios that seem dreamlike yet more real than any previous dream, memories that come on so strong they cause my nasal passages to sting as if with sudden bursts of ozone and silver spots to boil before my eyes (imagery borrowed from William S. Burroughs), to almost complete 'White Outs' where my vision succumbs to a completely white field that always carries with it glimpses of something that always remains just... out of... reach.

If I have the time I plan on writing a piece about this experience for Joup, as it was extremely unnerving, yet very interesting.

Oh Gale...

Mr. Brown sent this to me recently. It reminded me that I simply cannot wait for Breaking Bad to return.

NIN + David Lynch = Came Back Haunted

The Pixies - Bagboy

Wow. This is why, Frank Black... wherever you go, I will follow.

Stereolab - Pack Tr Romantic Mind

From my very favorite Stereolab record, Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements.

Trans Am - Motr

Always cool to start the day with something you haven't heard in a while. A long while in this case.

Zak Marcom - Roads

Great soundcloud page here.

Venue - Distant Highways

Ahhh, Venue. SO fantastic. Download the Free Desiréena EP here.

Wasted Time by Fear Club (w/ Ashley Garcia)

Falling down the soundcloud hole and there's no place I'd rather be right at the moment.

Buried Brothas by Coolbrothas

I LOVE this. If anyone digs this, please repost, as it's by some friends of mine and I'd like to see it get some mileage!

Nightmare Air - Icy Daggers

Just heard this group for the first time right now. Really, really diggin' it.

Grimm Teachaz Bandcamp

You apparently can't buy this anymore. It's listed as sold out, and it seems as though the digital files only came existed for those who bought the physical. I remember this being a conundrum to me when I first found it, back in 2010 around the time I interviewed Serengeti. I think I asked him about how to get it and didn't get a straight answer, which is kind of cool despite it being a skosh frustrating. Not many things stay enigmatic in the digital age. Grimm Teachaz - already kind of an alt-reality 90's hip hop group - has remained that way now, at least to me, for three years.

Cool.

Grimm Teachaz - I Getz (featuring Son Doobie)

Another Serengeti project, but this one's is a riddle. The group didn't really exist, or at least not when they say they did (90's), although if you follow this back to youtube you'll see a lot of folks claiming they 'saw' them live.

Nope.

I Love this track. A LOT.

THIS is specifically why I dislike most rap today - I miss when bass heavy, trippy, smoked-out hip hop ran far and wide. Now it's like pulling teeth just to get dudes to actually hone and demonstrate vocal prowess. Non-vocal rap, I've heard that's what they call drake and other such acts. That's kinda like Christian Death Metal, isn't it?

Serengeti drops the Kenny Dennis LP today!!!

Thanks to the infallible Mr. Brown for alerting me to this with an AVCLUB article you can read here. I Love Serengeti's stuff. I interviewed him a couple years ago (read that here and here).

Ben Shepard (Soundgarden) Solo Record

First track off Baron Robber, Soundgarden bass player Ben Shepherd's first solo record. Reminds me a bit of Down on the Upside-era SG, which is a very good thing. The record comes out 8/27. Oh, and it's under the handle HBS.

Miranda Sex Garden - Play Video

From the Suspiria album - my second favorite of the bands' (and yes it is named after the Dario Argento movie).

Katherine Blake's vocals have always scared me on this one, but now seeing her 'sing' them, even moreso.

Miranda Sex Garden - Transit Live

I'm having a Miranda Sex Garden day. This appears to be in mono, but it's still very cool, as I've never seen footage of them playing before.

David Lynch - Star Dream Girl

You know, I really want him to do another film, but I'm pretty damn happy with him releasing music every two years.

Queens of the Stone Age cover Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines

Also via Pitchfork (and BBC)

Mark Lanegan - Methamphetamine Blues

Also from the album Bubblegum

Queens of the Stone Age cover Mark Lanegan's 100 Days

YES! Queens covering one of my favorite tracks by Mark Lanegan, 100 Days from the Brilliant record Bubblegum!!!

via Pitchfork and originally Antiquiet!

House on The Borderland

Forgot to post last week's edition of Thee Comic Column. You can read all about The House on the Borderland here.

Polica - Interview (2012 Slacker Radio)

Rykard - Peter & Clark's Big Idea

Interesting...

I know nothing about Rykard, but I'm liking this.

Boards of Canada - Palace Posy (Tomorrow's Harvest)

Last week I completely forgot that the new Boards of Canada had come out. Well, scratch that, what I'd completely forgot was that June 18th had come and gone. Where the hell did June go? Anyway thanks to my good friend Jacob I received a copy over the weekend and pretty much haven't stopped listening to it since. If anything can derail a Godflesh binge, it's new Boards of Canada.

Palace Posy is one of my favorite tracks. There's something regal about the way it moves, but also a bit dancy. Also, it reminds me a bit of Badly Drawn Boy, but I'm not sure what track (and I only know two records' worth of his music). Welcome to the Overground maybe?

RIP Richard Matheson

Well, today just started to suck.

Joe Rogan talks to Bobcat Goldthwait about Willow Creek

And as long as I'm tripping off that, here's Joe Rogan's podcast where he talks to Bobcat about the making of the aforementioned (in the previous post) new movie Willow Creek.

Bobcat Goldthwait's New Movie...

... is a found footage, bigfoot flick?

Wow. Did not see that coming. Still, man's a genius, I'll see anything he does.

Via aintitcoolnews

David Lynch - Noah's Ark

From Crazy Clown Time. I'm basically just killing time until the new Lynch album comes out.

Ghostlight Trailer (via aint it cool news)

Via aintitcoolnews. Looks like there's some hinks in the acting/script, but it also looks like they did a great job with the tone considering the low budget. I'll see it - looks fun.

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

Part of my viewing this evening. Been a while, but this is a great flick. What it lacks in budget (and fashion sense for fuck's sake) it MORE than makes up for in tone and that special sick quality that grainy film and an amazingly twisted score will produce when married together in the perfect amounts.

Favorite moments: From ~1:01:15 and right about 1:20:27.

And if ya didn't know, same director as A Christmas Story (among other titles of note).

Patrick Wensink on Unbound - Fiction on the Radio

If you've not read Patrick's book Broken Piano For President you REALLY should. It's fantastic, and it introduced me to the new guiding light of my life. WWGD? (what would Gibby do?)

Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer Official Video (finally!!!)

I tried and tried to post this earlier in the week but it had been taken down. Well, it's back up now, so we can see what all the hullabaloo was about.

One of my favorite tracks off the new record.

Blut Aus Nord The Work Which Transforms God 10th Anniversary Vinyl

Yep. Grab yours here at Debemur-Morti I ordered mine today. There's either the 2x12" LP version or the double, gatefold CD (which is limited to 777 copies- NICE).

Now, I'm pretty sure these are packaged w/out Thematic Emanations of Archetypal Multiplicity, HOWEVER, there is a cover of Godflesh's Mighty Trust Krusher. I've posted the original below - Emanations and The Work... were my first experiences with the wonder that is Blut Aus Nord, and one of the first things I noticed as I fell into their black orbit was the obvious influence Godflesh and Justin K. Broadrick in general had on Vindsval. Well, no where can that be heard more than on Streetcleaner's The Mighty Trust Krusher. I can't wait to hear what Nord's version of this classic sounds like.

Special edition releases July 5th.

Japandroids Perform Adrenaline Nightshift on Letterman (via Pitchfork)

I've been so immersed in working on my novel I'm really behind on shit in the music world, so for now I'm just pilfering openly from random sites. This is via Pitchfork, and if you follow the link back there they have a great vid of the band performing Fire's Highway @ 2012's Pitchfork Fest in my native Chicago.

If I watched late night tv, I'd watch Letterman.

And I LOVE Japandroids.

Fuck Buttons - The Red Wing Music Video

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Hate the Taste video Premier and...

...and here it is on that one guy's show. You know, the one who retired, then took it back, then acted like a big baby? Yeah, that guy.

Chvrches on Jimmy Fallon - The Mother We Share

via Pitchfork (well, and nbc of course).