From the forthcoming album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, out May 24th on the frankly at-this-point unbelievable Sargent House. Pre-order physical HERE and digital HERE.
**
First day back in LALALand was a doozy. All the cliches: traffic, meetings, yuppies, hipsters, douche bags. I suppose this all seems exacerbated by the fact that I want to live in North Bend! All in due time. Talk about life goals.
**
NCBD today, and I'm so behind I don't even want to know what comes out today. I haven't been able to get into the shop in at least a month - yeah, I blog about what's coming out but my schedule has prevented me from stopping in so all that great stuff is just accruing into a massive bomb that is going to explode in my wallet, creating a black hole that will empty it.
**
Playlist from 4/16:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Skating Polly - Queen for a Day (Audiotree Live)
Algiers - Underside of Power
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Card of the day:
This is telling me to continue to focus, as I did yesterday, on honing one of two stories to send into an open submission I've been waiting to see for a while. Information flowing quickly, which definitely means not to stall or overthink it, even if I am overhauling one of the two stories completely. Then I can dip back into Ciazarn.
I knew this was coming sometime soon, but wasn't sure when. And here's another case where I can't figure out how to pre-order vinyl! Well, for the time being, just double tap the embedded bandcamp player or click HERE and you can pre-order the digital.
From the forthcoming album Nightmare Stories - great title - available from Southern Lord on June 7th. You can pre-order the digital album HERE, not sure about physical copies yet, I couldn't find a link on the bandcamp or Southern Lord's site.
And that reminds me: Sunn O)))'s Steve Albini-produced Life Metal dropped on Record Store Day, but is apparently unavailable anywhere else at the moment. I totally forgot about this one - it would have definitely motivated me to find a record store while I was in Seattle. Anyone have any deets about further release schedules? I've checked both the band and Southern Lord's bandcamps, the Southern Lord Twitter, and a few other places and found nothing.
**
Flew into LAX yesterday and today, it's back to reality.
**
Playlist from 4/15:
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
Zombi - Shape Shift
Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Calexico - The Black Light
"The full-length concert film Distant Sky - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds live in Copenhagen will be available to stream for free between 19 and 22 April 2019. To access sign up at www.nickcave.com/distantsky."
K and I saw this last year during the limited theatrical engagement and it's fantastic. Definitely worth your time if you're a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fan.
**
Had breakfast at Twede's Cafe yesterday, better known to Peaks fans as The Double R. Would it surprise you to find out that it is indeed where pies go when they die? (Yes, pie for desert at breakfast).
Now I am glad K made me wait to eat this until she could take a picture.
The trek to Seattle was easy from North Bend, but honestly, I wish we'd just stayed the duration in North Bend. Nothing against Seattle, but it's a different thing. Also, there's so much development here it kind of makes my head spin. When Mr. Brown, Two, and I were here in July 2017 I thought there was a lot, but it continues unabated. It's now Amazon: The City.
We did the Bill Speidel Underground tour, which was super cool; anything that puts me in tunnels beneath the Earth is something I'm automatically going to love. All those decayed and forgotten passages - well, not really forgotten in the context of dozens of tours going through them everyday, but forgotten in the sense that there's a whole city down there! Marvelous.
The tour combined with our last exploring of North Bend/Snoqualmie and the drive, and we were done. Ate dinner at the pub in our hotel, The Merchant Cafe, drank a few of these (below), and retired to our room where we attempted to watch the first leg of Week 3 of Joe Bob Briggs The Last Drive-In on Shudder, but I was probably out by 10:00 PM.
Playlist from 4/13:
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vista II: Dialogue with the Stars
Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
First, I had to set the tone with some music. Last night, K and I rolled into North Bend. I love this town. Seriously. With Mount Rainier looming beautifully in the mist, we checked into our amazing Airbnb and set out for the Salish Lodge. In the cool, wet spring evening, the falls were more amazing than I've ever seen them. To say K had a religious experience is something of an understatement.
Afterward, we ate at Fall City Roadhouse, the exterior for the infamous Twin Peaks Roadhouse. Second time I've dined here and the food is just ridiculous! I had the Meatloaf Dinner, and, well, this must be where meatloaves go when they die. Washed it down with two of these, Nitro, on tap:
Breakfast this morning will be at Twede's, which my fellow Peaks People will know as Norma's Double R Diner. From there will probably cruise a few filming spots so she can see them (Hap's old location, Ronette's bridge, maybe the Mill/Sheriff Station), then on to Seattle, where we'll leave the Peaks nostalgia behind and dig into an Underground tour and some museum tours. Special thanks to Mr. Brown who is way more familiar with Seattle than I, and his offering to serve as my 'Alex,' by phone if I have any questions.
Playlist:
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Melvins - Houdini
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Dum Dum Girls - Too True
Twin Peaks Limited Event Series Soundtrack
Card of the day:
Having a hard time squaring this with my present state. 7s traditionally represent the unbalance that leaving the harmony of the 6s behind causes. I don't feel unbalanced, but I suppose we often don't. I'll take this as a reminder to keep my wits about me and stay emotionally even.
You know there's more to this than there seems. But even if season 9 is only a simple 80s slasher story, I'd be 100% happy with that. Now, I just have to watch Cult and Apocalypse...
**
I'm posting this late/early. Haven't been to bed yet. K's plane was delayed and it's almost 1:00 AM. I'm groggy, just opened another beer, and am watching the credits to Robert Rodriguez's The Faculty scroll across my screen. Ray has been telling for years to watch this, and it's currently in Shudder's Last Chance bin (see a pattern?), so I figured I'd go for it. Not blown away - didn't expect to be - but I dug it. I especially dug realizing how goddamn hot Frazier's ex-wife is. WOW BOB WOW.
**
This past Tuesday, Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories From the Border of Hell dropped. If you don't remember,I've postedabout Mr. Ballingrud's The Visible Filth a few times since I first discovered it a couple years ago. The original version of that novella, published by the marvelous This is Horror imprint, went out of print recently, to make way for this collection, which contains Visible Filth, as well as five other stories. Wounds is also the name of the movie adaptation of Visible Filth that I can NOT wait to see, directed by Babak Anvari, and starring Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson. I can't say how happy I am for Mr. Ballingrud. There are super positive reviews rolling in for both the book and the movie, and I really think this is the launch of a massive presence in horror fiction. You can order the book HERE from Amazon, or, if you are lucky enough to have a brick-and-mortar bookstore in your area, I'm sure they will have it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
Gold & Grey out June 14th. Pre-order HERE. Really interesting video. I like seeing behind the scenes with bands of this caliber. I'm increasingly interested in work spaces.
**
Last night I ate at a local place called Steam Plant for the second night in a row. The building used to be Spokane's power plant, and the restaurant owners designed their environment utilizing a lot of the textures of the previous facility as decor. They also do not shy away from using all the space, which means the place is cavernous; I caught a buzz and went exploring, found little rooms all over the place. Here's some pictures; the timing is not great on my .giff, but you get the idea.
I've kind of made the lower level, pub area of Steam Plant my Nighttime office; I sequester myself in a booth with my laptop, a few beers and, so far, something off their incredible sandwich menu and work on this new short story that Spokane has inspired. Beer wise, to my surprise, Steam Plant still had their Octoberfest on draft, and friends, it is glorious! Also, their Steam Bock is no slouch either. K comes in tonight and after what will hopefully be an abbreviated work day tomorrow, we head out for North Bend. Can't wait to eat at Twede's (The Double R) with her!
Playlist from 4/10:
Mevlins - Houdini
Helms Alee - Night Terrors
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
It was only a matter of time until I sunk into my favorite Melvins album while walking around Spokane. There's an insane aural/visual connection I make exploring the various textures of this city - a lot of brick, stone and Earth - with heavy slabs grinding in my ears. It just works. I'm probably waiting until the last day to take pictures - the streets are a bit sketch in a lot of parts, overrun with homeless, many of whom I've seen bother random folks walking around on the street. This makes a lot of people nervous, I know, but I do my best to avoid standing out, and part of that is not pulling out my iPhone every few minutes and snapping pictures. Also, with my worn combat boots, fingerless glove, dark clothing, and fully engaged hoodie, I blend in with the homeless. Which works well for me.
Last night I took a deviation from Ciazarn and followed inspiration for a new short story. The inspiration came from a simple, everyday office scenario that my mind twisted into what is becoming a really fun direction. I wrote for hours yesterday, causally pecking away at an online that, at some point shifted to a full-on narrative. No working title, no nothing yet. Just 15K words and an escalating desire to see where this one goes.
**
Later, back in my hotel room, I watched GhostWatch, currently on Shudder's "Last Chance" list. I'd heard the Shockwaves crew speak on this one a few weeks back, and earmarked it based on whatever that discussion entailed. I have to tell you, it had me all the way through. And genuinely scary, which you all know I consider rare. What's crazy is apparently, many of the British BBC ONE news folks in the movie are indeed real television news folks, and GhostWatch originally aired in Britain on Halloween, 1992 under the auspices of being an actual news program, Orson Welles style. Man! I wish I could have seen it in that capacity. Still, really cool flick. Here's a video that explains the occurrence in more detail than I can:
**
Playlist from 4/09:
Young Widows - Old Wounds
Helms Alee - Night Terror
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Melvins - Houdini
Card of the day:
This resonates. My writing yesterday feels like it's put my power levels through the freakin' roof. More today.
I walked 5 miles around Spokane yesterday, partially in the rain. It was fucking glorious. This city feels to me like the image of Seattle told through Everybody Loves Our Town, and all stories my mind made from the images put there by Nevermind and Houdini and Superfuzz BigMuff, back when listening to music was my only means of exploring a larger world (i.e. High School). Gentrification encroaches, slowly pushes out the artists and the addled, so that you see people in suits checking into hotels next door to which are convenience stores overrun by homeless criminals with backpacks full of poison for sale. The rain looks like it's falling even when it doesn't, and the damp is almost a caress. Stone and brick buildings everywhere, shuttered shops a genuine lack of strip malls and plazas (god I hate that word), and the city seems besieged by either trees or mountains, depending on which direction you look. All in all, it is an amazing place to fall in love with a new album, and this Sleepwalking Sailors record by Helms Alee is just doing it for me right now.
**
Apparently, Young Widows are at Roadburn Festival this year, performing Old Wounds in its entirety. Wow. There are no festivals I would like to attend on Earth except Roadburn. Check out this year's art. Love it like I do? Maarten Donders is your man! I can't wait until Jonathan Grimm does one of these. It's so going to happen.
Playlist from 4/08:
Young Widows - Old Wounds
Helm Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Card of the day:
Two big changes taking place at the moment - handing the book of to Missi and starting on Ciazarn, and spending a week working in Spokane, so I'll read this at a general, face value.
I've been listening to Tricky's Maxinquaye a lot of late. An amazingly album built around uncomfortable atmosphere, Maxinquaye remains timeless. Those aberrant sonic elements that comprise many of the tracks will, I think, always feel fresh and groundbreaking. No one does shit like this except Tom Waits, and that's just a different thing.
**
I had a long flight yesterday. An hour and fifteen to San Jose, where I arrived at 5:00 PM and had until 7:55 PM before my connecting flight to Spokane. No problem. Seriously, some people would hate this, but I looked at it as time to write. Hot to trot on Ciazarn, I found an unbelievable business room in the San Jose Airport - with desks and everything - and I put up shop, adding bullet points to my outline and trying to figure this story out. In this regard, I ended up researching everything from the Dustbowl of the 1930s and what States it affected most, to the evolution of the Railroads up until and including the landmark Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad Company court decision of 1886 where the U.S. Supreme Court first ruled a corporation has the rights of personhood. This is, by the way, one of the most detrimental moments in Earth's history, if you ask me, because it makes corporations the dominant species on the planet. But I digress. A lot of these events and ideas may not explicitly occur in Ciazarn, but all of them most definitely inform its world. I think I have bigger plans for this project than I first thought, which is cool.
**
Well, FINALLY. Can't wait for June 14th:
Being that this is not only Nicolas Winding Refn, but Ed Brubaker also worked on it - and John Hawkes - I am so in.
Playlist from 4/07:
Boards of Canada - Campfire Headphase
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Boards of Canada -
Black Queen - Infinite Games
Ben Frost - By the Throat
Belong - October Language
Barrie - Canyons (single)
Tricky - Maxinquaye
No card today. Running late walking to this week's gig.
Well, I did not expect to be posting this track today. I didn't expect to even think of one of my favorite Guns and Roses songs any time soon. And 'favorite G&R song' is a somewhat exclusive label, as the band long ago irritated me to the point that I have little ability left to engage with their music in any meaningful way. It's all nostalgia, with only brief glimpses of the feelings their music - especially the epics on the two Illusions records - used to inspire in me back when I was in high school and G&R was a force to be reckoned with. It's not that the material is lacking, because songs like Estranged, Coma, and yes, even November Rain still feel epic and genuine to me. But for a band I once thought would be the 'next Rolling Stones,' G&R couldn't keep it together and ended up traveling through this timeline as a not much more than a bad joke. Nadler's upcoming collaborative album with Stephen Brodsky, out April 26th on Sacred Bones, however, is not a joke:
I can't place where I know Marrisa Nadler's name from; it doesn't matter. Between her, Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle, and Myrkur, there is an amazing cabal of female artists exploring the dark and beautiful intersection of folk and black metal. It's not about sound, it's about tone and aesthetic. And Brodsky's discography is loaded with impressive projects, so I think I'll pre-order this one, which can be done HERE.
**
The Horror Vision had a group outing last Thursday and caught the first pre-screening of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new iteration of the classic Stephen King novel Pet Sematary. I'm sorry to say I hated it. With a passion. And I think I have some pretty good reasons for that hate. Did my Castmates agree with me? Check out our reaction on any of the following platforms below to find out, but only if you've seen the flick; we go heavy spoilers on this one:
I leave for Spokane in a few hours, and in preparing for this trip, my main goal over the last few days has been to finish the First Reader copy of the Shadow Play Book One, so I could pass it off to Missi and NOT THINK ABOUT IT for a few weeks. I'm happy to say I accomplished my goal, even though by the end of the work - last minute touch-ups to the prose and a ton of formatting tweaks that resulted from taking the finished document out of Scrivener and into Vellum, I was spent. I raced through three hours last night and came out the other side feeling as though I'd been immersed in hard physical labor. Now? On to Ciazarn!
Ciazarn: also known as carny, is a private language employed by those who live and work in Carnival culture, meant to keep anyone outside that culture from knowing what is being said.
This is the new collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, who I'm also doing The Legend of Parish Fenn with. Fenn is a comic. Ciazarn is a short story - or perhaps eventually a series of short stories - with illustrations by Grimm. At some point I'll post an elevator pitch and sample art and I think you'll agree with me that Ciazarn is going to be awesome.
**
Playlist 4/05:
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Canadian Rifle - Deep Ends
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
Windhand - Live Elsewhere
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Playlist 4/06:
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Card of the day:
Breakthrough. Exactly. One immediately behind me, hopefully one directly in front of me.
Jarmusch is doing a zombie movie? With Bill Murray and Adam Driver? Count me in! I mean, I am just about as burnt out on the Z word as one can be; I remember back in 2004 when my good friend Mike who runs Amazing Fantasy Comics in Chicago told me to read The Walking Dead, my initial reaction was, "Zombies are over done. Give me the first three Romero flicks, Return of the Living Dead, and Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, and I'm good." And that was before the real over-saturation occurred, before even Arnold Schwarzenegger had made a zombie movie. Now? Well, it takes a hell of a lot to get me interested in the living dead; there really has to be a unique and unexpected spin on the concept. The Night Ate the World definitely did that for me last year. The Walking Deadcomic does it every month (hint: because it's not really about the zombies). Cinematically, comedies appear to have the highest success rate with me, i.e. Sean of the Dead and Zombieland, are two that I adore. But having just watched and LOVED Jarmusch's Patterson, the idea of him doing a Z flick with a cast like this, well, I'm very intrigued.
And hell, look what he did for Vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive, probably my favorite V flick since Coppola's Bram Stoker.
**
Yesterday I listened to the Beyond the Void Podcast and absolutely loved it. I'd listened once or twice before, or so I thought, but had no lasting impression of the show. Not surprising: my memory is chewed and the amount of content I consume probably borders on insane. And there's so many podcasts out there, it's hard to nail down the good ones. BTV is definitely one of the good ones.
I started with BTV's top horror movies of 2018 episode, and wow. I mean, it wasn't just the thrill of our lists mostly lining up; hosts Alex and Britni both have a similar aesthetic, but beyond that, it was super cool to hear films like The Night Ate the World and Incident in a Ghostland given their due, because I feel as though both were largely absent from a lot of the 'best of' lists I saw last year. Really great 'cast and a ton of additional content on their site as well, so if you're in a horror discussin' mood, give these folks a listen.
**
Playlist from 4/03:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Matthew Dear - You Put a Smell On Me
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Martina Topley-Bird - Too Tough to Die
Twilight Singers - Too Tough to Die
Matthew Dear - Bunny
Sleep - Dopesmoker
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Card of the day:
Because I'm getting nothing fucking done, my even-steven level (6) has become unstable.
CBS timed this one right, eh? I haven't had a chance to watch this yet, but I figured I'd post it here for posterity's sake. Very intrigued; I'm imaging the Peele hosted/produced new spin on the classic anthology series will sit quite nicely in the cultural zeitgeist alongside his own films, Black Mirror, Electric Sheep, etc.
**
The new episode of The Horror Vision podcast went up yesterday. We talk about a bunch of flicks we've seen since the previous episode, and then the recently released Book of Monsters, the trailer for which follows the links for the show below:
NCBD: I don't even know where to start. Despite keeping track of the releases in these pages, I haven't actually been to the shop in a couple of weeks, so I'm pushing wallet-death at this point, not to mention a very real chance I'll forget one of the peripheral titles not on my pull. If there were any. I don't remember, so I'm going to have to go through the last few week's NCBD posts here so I can stay abreast. Here's today's titles:
LOVE this book!
So good to have Paper Girls back in monthly form!
The description for this issue on Comics List ends with, "...dark times ahead." Oh man.
**
Playlist from 4/01:
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Playlist from 4/02:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
King Khan & The Shrines - The Supreme Genius of...
The Juan Maclean (Matthew Dear the Red Thread Remix)
Otis Redding - Live on the Sunset Strip
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Card of the day:
Same card as the last pull I did, a few days ago. This is no doubt because my previous interpretation was on the nose, and I have 100% ignored it. Yesterday after work was a much-needed nap and then I finished the edit on the new episode of The Horror Vision. Day before I got a little editing done (did some yesterday morning for that matter too, hence no post here, but I'm lagging. I need to get this to my First Reader before I leave for Washington on Sunday. Hopefully work will be a bit calmer today and I'll have the energy to come home and really knock out the final tweaking on the last five chapters. Because that's all that's standing in the way!
Because most days, Talking Heads' first Brian Eno collaboration Remain in Light continues to be the album in my head the moment I wake up. NOT a complaint.
**
A long weekend of work set me back about a day on turning the book over to Missi - yeah, I'm remembering yesterday's Card of the Day, but there's still a few tweaks to be made. I spent about a good hour yesterday morning at 5:00 AM reworking the dialogue in a scene and it has resonated in my head since, so it's worth it.
**
I was so tired last night when I skipped dinner and passed out, that I think I may have been speaking in tongues. Creepy, that kind of tired. Makes me feel like I'm not really here.
**
Playlist from 3/31:
King Khan and the Shrines - The Supreme Genius Of...
Joe Mason - Music for Unrealized Cartoons
Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Sleaford Mods - English Tapas
Television - Marquee Moon
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Windhand/Satan Satrys - Split EP
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
I fell back into King Khan and the Shrines yesterday. Previously, I've returned again and again to the apparently well OOP The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines, one of the best damn compilations I've ever heard. It's not often I get into a band and am happy subsisting on a comp alone, but it happens on occasion, as it did with KK and the Shrines. Mr. Brown burnt said disc for me... hell, I guess back around the time I moved to LA, and it's been an on and off companion since. And although he also burnt me what probably amounts to the remainder of the band's catalogue, as well as plenty from Khan's two-man project, The King Khan & BBQ Show, The Supreme Genius of... has remained my go-to. The tracks just flow so. Damn. Good. Here's a live clip I found of another of my favorites:
That right there is Soul, baby. Khan and his cabal of collaborators have been a major force in taking back Soul from the mis-labelling of the music that began in the 80s and 90s, with crappy melodramatic balladeers. This is Sam and Dave, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding... the list goes on.
**
It's one week until I head out to Spokane for work, and then only five days until I spend a long weekend in Seattle. Can't wait. Planning on staying a night in North Bend, a city I would ultimately love to live in, and you can bet K and I will be dining at Twede's, better known to Twin Peaks fans as the Double R Diner. This will be my fourth trip to Washington, the first since 2017. It's K's first, so I'm psyched to see her reaction to the state's beauty.
**
Playlist from 3/29:
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Brand New - Science Fiction
Playlist from 3/30:
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
King Khan and the Shrines - The Supreme Genius Of
Otis Redding - Live at the Whiskey a Go Go
Naked Raygun - Series #1
Naked Raygun - Series #2
Naked Raygun - Series #3
Naked Raygun - Free S**t! Live in Chicago
Dum Dum Girls - Too True
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
How to Destroy Angels - Eponymous EP
Card of the day:
Leaning toward an interpretation that juxtaposes The Magus with the source of its inspiration, Hermes Trismegistus, or the Messenger of the Gods Mercury, who Crowley refers to as, "Word of creation whose speech is silent." In other words, time to stop tinkering and send the book to Missi for that extremely important First Reader Experience.
What an awesome mail week! First, yesterday I received Rendered Armor, the new LP from Ritual Howls. Out on Felte Records now, this is a damned fine piece of music; when I pre-ordered the vinyl a few months back, I sunk in the extra couple bucks to receive the hardbound book. A retrospective of the Ritual Howl's existence thus far, the history is told in gorgeous B&W photography and set against a backdrop of all the band's lyrics. Holding the finished product in my hand I can tell you it is very cool. Love these guys so very much.
Second, on Wednesday, I received Shout Factory's Larry Fessenden Collection. I've wanted this for years, finally pulled the trigger on it. Four features - No Telling, Habit, Wendigo, and The Last Winter, as well as the short White Trash. No Telling was the one I'd missed - although I haven't seen Wendigo since the early 2000s, so it will be mostly like seeing it again for the first time - and after watching it last night I absolutely loved it. Maybe my favorite of Mr. Fessenden's (although I'll probably say that about all of them. No Telling is known overseas as The Frankenstein Complex, a title that's a bit too on the nose in my opinion, but me thinks this film serves as a harbinger for Fessenden's much-anticipated new film Depraved, about "...a disillusioned field surgeon who makes a man out of body parts and brings him to life in a Brooklyn loft."
Definite companion pieces.
The package is loaded with extras, many of which Fessenden introduces, and I intend on watching everything and in order of release! Can't wait.
**
Playlist from 3/29:
Faith No More - King for a Day
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
This new track from Helms Alee popped up in my youtube feed via Sargent House's channel. Wow. I know nothing of this band, but that changes today. From the forthcoming Noctiluca, out on Sargent House April 26th. Pre-order HERE.
**
Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie is finished. Well, the writing part. I spent a good four hours over the last two days tweaking the layout in Scrivener and Veullum, and it's almost right, but not quite. It looks like I'll be spending all day Friday watching 'how-to' videos for both programs, trying to dial in those last little nuances. Oh yeah, I've also secured my all-important First Reader! Thank You, Missi!
**
If you're anywhere near my age - 43 - you remember a time before the Internet, when television required what we now refer to as Event Viewing. I'm not going to say that was necessarily better, but it's funny that, as we get further and further into the paradigm where we control the viewing experience 100% in most cases, there's still those of us who nostalgically long for an occasional movie or show to call the shots. I wouldn't want everything to revert to that paradigm because, hey, I'm freakin' busy, as I'm sure you are. But it's nice to have an event to look forward to every now and again. Shudder knows this. Joe Bob Briggs knows this. That's why, I am excited as all hell for tomorrow night and the inaugural Joe Bob Briggs The Last Drive In weekly Double Feature! I have no idea what JBB is showing, nor do I care. All that matters is that he is hosting.
**
Playlist from 3/27:
Bonobo - The North Borders
The National - You Had Your Soul With You (Pre-release Single)
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Brand New - Science Fiction
Windhand - Eternal Return
White Lung - Eponymous
Tamaryn - The Waves
Card of the day:
Balance and Harmony. The imagery on this card, perhaps more than any other in the deck, instills in my chest a calm and peaceful feeling. The Star sifts the cosmic waters of the Universe, which in a way, is what artists do. I feel good. I feel on track.
While even after multiple attempts, I really never developed a taste for The National's much-lauded 2017 album Sleep Well Beast, I am such an enormous fan of 2010's High Violet that I give everything they do a chance. Admittedly, You Had Your Soul With You probably dropped a while ago, so I'm posting it here well after the fact, but I've been careful about getting off on the wrong foot with I Am Easy to Find, the band's forthcoming album on 4AD. With some bands, pre-album release singles can create false expectations for the overall tone of the album. Despite this, something forced my hand this morning, and now I am very intrigued about the full album, which you can pre-order HERE.
**
I've been cleaning a lot of music out of my iTunes to make room on my Mac Book, and this morning I was super freaked out to find I can no longer find my Twin Peaks Music Archive tracks. For those of you who remember this, roughly eight years ago, David Lynch released a massive archive of every music track used in the original show. This included all incidental tracks, and every variation of every track. I'm not entirely sure how I would have deleted these, and there's a chance I have it backed up on a secondary drive somewhere (please please please), but until then, I'm sweating it a little bit. Here's a taste of what I was looking for this morning:
**
Playlist from 3/26:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Finn Andrews - One Piece at a Time
Jaye Jayle - No Trail and Other Unholy Paths
Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Brand New - Science Fiction
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
M83 - Saturdays Equal Youth
Let's go back a few years. Circa 2014. Via Blood Disgusting, I found and fell in love with a podcast called Double Murder. A kind of 'celebrity death match' of horror movies, our hosts Danny and Tim take two horror movies and weigh them for ranking against one another. The criteria is learned and often sophisticated understanding and discussion of content and craft, so it makes for a fantastic listen if you're into Horror as an aesthetic as well as a good time.
Double Murder is a deceivingly intellectual discussion of horror (see their episode Videodrome vs. eXistenz); one of those deep dive shows where you really get to know your hosts in regard to how they approach something you probably also love if you're listening, i.e. horror movies. As with life, over the last few years episodes have dwindled as the hosts' lives have presumably done what all our lives do - run all the fuck over us, stealing our moments and bludgeoning our wills. That's a beating you have to actively work against, and brother, it ain't easy. I mean, some days it can be difficult enough to motivate yourself to do something you love, let alone line up two or more schedules to work on a project. Anyway, due to the dwindle, I'd fallen out of habit checking for new episodes. Then, last week I noticed there was one from last October, a fantastic juxtaposing of Halloween H20 and Halloween 2018. Yay!
Now, here's the thing. Danny! and Tim are from my home town, and that further endears these guys to me. I don't know them, but I'm double rooting for them, in whatever they do. So when Danny! asks Tim for news on his band, Canadian Rifle, I remember that yes! I can look these guys up on Apple Music, a service I didn't have whenever the last time they might have mentioned the band on the podcast and I was listening. I did just that, and was pretty much immediately blown away by Canadian Rifle's 2018 album Peaceful Death. I played this fucker for about a dozen rotations that first day, and it has remained in heavy rotation since. Canadian Rifle's bandcamp is HERE - I'm so ordering some vinyl to support these fellas - and there's a ton of tracks on youtube, Apple Music, wherever fine paperbacks are sold.
**
According to Comic List, it's another light week for NCDB. It can be depressing waiting for new issues of A Walk Through Hell and Gideon Falls. However, of note this week is Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science begins its final arc with this week's issue #39. Consulting Image Comics, looks like this last arc will culminate in June with Issue #42. What a great book; looking forward to a deep-dive re-read as soon as Black Science is over.
I'm behind on Punks Not Dead. Issue One of the second arc, London Calling, is still sitting on my desk, waiting for me to re-read the final issue of the first arc before diving into this new one.
**
Playlist from 3/25:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Throwing Shade - House of Silk EP
Windhand - Eternal Return
Card of the day:
Another nod toward a new beginning, and a fulfilling one to boot. As I begin to make a list of ideas and scenes for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light (Tentative title), I'm about to begin actually writing my second collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, a Depression-era, dustbowl circus zombie story called Ciazarn. Not a comic, this is more a prose novella with pictures by Grimm, and judging by what I've already seen, it will be gorgeous.
I am loving the new Finn Andrews' record One Piece at a Time. Another album that is perfect all the way through. Currently, this is my favorite song, although I suppose that may change as on an album this strong, all ten tracks will most likely cycle through as a favorite at some point.
**
My friend Jesus gifted me a copy of Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell's Infidel, and after only a few pages in, I can attest that all the great things I've read online are 100% accurate. Described as, "A haunted house for the 21st Century, Infidel follows an American Muslim woman and her multiracial neighbors who move into a building haunted by entities that feed off xenophobia." Amazing, high concept, right? Well, so far the execution is tense to say the least, and Campbell's art is ridiculous it's so fantastic. Here's a sample:
**
Finally watched Ryan Gosling's 2014 debut as Writer/Director Lost River. Wow. I was a little tired through the beginning, blinking out in micronaps, and I thought that might affect my experience, but it did not. Reminiscent of Harmony Korine's Gummo meets David Lynch's Straight Story, Lost River's third act pretty much forever endeared the movie to me. The imagery Gosling puts on screen is breathtaking, and Johnny Jewel's OST is perfect.
Oh, and Ben Mendelsohn and Matt Smith are fantastic as two very different varieties of heavies.
**
Playlist from 3/24:
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Bloodlust
Card of the day:
Lots of Earthly concerns, because I've not been as vigilant as I need to be with money. It's very easy to slip, with all of these wonderful boutique companies out there servicing fans of everything from David Lynch to any comic book you've ever read. To move forward, sometimes we have to let ourselves take a few steps back. Does that make sense, or am I mixing metaphors and scenarios? It's early, off to work.
Many thanks to youtube user Baby Gorilla, whose channel you should absolutely go check and support with some likes and a subscription; the video content is outstanding! Link to Baby Gorilla HERE.
**
I've known for a while that DC has a subscription service called dcuniverse. Anyone who reads these pages knows this should hold no particular interest for me, as especially in the modern day there is very little content DC generates that I'm interested in. HOWEVER, a week or so ago, my good friend Mike Shinabargar sent me this:
I need to see this, like, soon. While I don't have any interest in reading the current iteration of Doom Patrol that DC Comics publishes, I am a HUGE fan of Grant Morrison's 80s run on the title, and according to Mike, the show leans heavily on it, so if this scene is any indication, I am very interested.
**
Three Fourths of The Horror Vision recorded our Spoiler-heavy discussion to Jordan Peele's Us last night (Chris out helping manage a European tour with Rezurex!). You can find the Us episode below:
After the Us reaction, we watched indie horror gem Book of Monsters, which will be the focus of our episode going up early this week. Here's a trailer:
Nice work on getting this one out there, Dread Central!
Playlist from 3/23:
Windhand - Eternal Return
Canadian Rifle - A Peaceful Death
Gary Numan -
Card of the day:
A new beginning of Earthly Matters. Time to double down on saving money - it's been difficult lately and I've been slipping - and time to start outlining the sequel to Shadow Play!
I should have realized that, a few days ago when they released We Never Fall, that it would be a harbinger of the band's first live album. I can NOT wait to dig into this today.
K and I saw Jordan Peele's Us last night. Despite one of the worst crowds I've shared a theatre with in recent memory, and me being a bit too high to let all the random conversations not affect my viewing, the film is outstanding. Peele is one of the most original filmmakers out there today, and seeing him interviewed recently on both Horror Noire and Eli Roth's History of Horror, it excites me to no end that he embraces Horror as much as he does, and wants to continue to create inside the genre.
Also, that second trailer for Pet Sematary that I had been avoided was foisted on me before the movie last night, and it looks scary as hell.
Playlist from 3/22:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Thought Gang - Eponymous
Stan Getz - Focus
Mr. Brown sent this to me yesterday. I am PSYCHED. I mean, with the momentum of just finishing a re-watch of the original series, I cannot WAIT for May 31st, which really, isn't that long to wait at all.
**
When my friend Keller showed me this the other day, it absolutely blew me away. Skating Polly have such a throw-back sound to the 90s, but in a way that feels pretty genuine. Siblings, I'd wager their mother and/or father are about my age, grew up in the 90s and exposed their daughters to PJ Harvey, The Pixies, The Breeders, etc, from an early age. This is influence, not imitation, a fine line in today's world. Anyway, this is an older track; Keller discovered them a few months back at the Echo and ended up seeing them multiple times since then. His assessment? They Rock. The musical exchange here, both in the girls' singing and playing, warms my heart.
**
K and I finished the first season of Deadly Class last night; the season finale aired a week or two ago, so we were behind. Man! I'm calling it now - best comic book adaptation yet! These characters are insanely alive in the book, but on the show, I don't know, you get more gravity with their emotions and situations. Also, all the deviations from the book? Well, Remender himself is the show runner, so all of it is him writing new material. My favorite new character? I can't believe I'm going to say this, but French Stewart is freakin' fantastic in the role of Scorpio Slasher. Here's a peek:
LOVE Billy's reaction!
Playlist from 3/21:
Skating Polly - On Audiotree Live - EP
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Finn Andrews - One Piece at a Time
Kevin Ayers - Bananamour
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Chasms - The Mirage
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Second Still - Eponymous
Stan Getz - Focus
Card of the day:
The Airy aspect of Water. Emotion curbed with intellect. Is this a harbinger to my workday ahead? Probably, so I'll interpret it as a cue to remain mindful even in instances of explosive emotions. In other words: It might be a trying day. Breathe deep and keep your head up and your mouth (mostly) closed. It's eight hours until the weekend.
This showed up in my youtube feed last night and frankly, listening to it was so exciting I had a bit of trouble falling asleep afterward. This band continues to amaze me; while this track obviously bears more than a little passing resemblance to the standard 'Zeal & Ardor Sound,' there's more than enough that's 'new' here to show that Manuel and crew are continuing to stretch that signature sound in new directions, without eschewing the core ideas that made them so awesome in the first place. Not an easy thing to do, but they're doing it. So coupled with Baphoment, the new track K and I saw them play at the Roxy back in August, that's two new tracks. Let's hope we get another new album sooner than later. That said, don't rush it guys. Just keep doing what you're doing.
**
Tuesday night after work I drove up to Hollywood, and my friend Keller and I attended something of a dream event - Harmony Korine's 1997 film Gummo in 35mm at the Egyptian Theatre, with Korine present after the film, interviewed at the front of the room by a long-time friend.
It was magnificent. Gummo has, since shortly after I first saw the film back in, oh, probably '99, occupied a spot in my top-five favorite films of all time. And while the movie disgusts many folks, this screening cemented my observation that it is both one of the most ugly and simultaneously one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. There is such life here! After the movie, Korine talked about casting, and how he wanted to put people in the movie that you normally would never see in a movie. You can argue that there's an element of exploitation here, but to that I'd counter that Korine documents and puts himself in the film, which to me dissolves the barrier between filmmaker and subjects. He's one of them, not above them, and I think he makes this very clear. I feel real love in Gummo, and while there's definitely some terrible stuff contained within, it's documented objectively, not celebrated or diminished.
**
Because I was out late Tuesday, I'd already secured yesterday off from work. The caveat to myself though, was if I stay home, I have to work. So, I spent the entire day, from about 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM working to finish Shadow Play, with only the distraction of the occasional break to read a comic and several loads of laundry between sessions. There was some major dialogue sculpting I had to do in some of the final chapters, and one serious flaw in a certain character's logic that caused a massive reassessment and overhaul of the last ten chapters. Nothing plot-wise, but all the tiny nuances that go into this disparate collection of characters' lives and machinations all coming to a head in a penultimate moment needed to be massaged something fierce. You know, you change something here, you have to follow the ripples through to the end and make sure they all gel. And although I was exhausted and in need of an ice cold Sierra Nevada by 6:15 PM, I am quite happy with the work. Four more chapters to record and I'm ready for that final go-through. Can't wait.
**
I worked with such focus yesterday, that I was able to ignore two major trailers that dropped and had everyone talking. I'll post them here now as I watch them for the first time.
Wow. Kudos on the use of Baba O'Riley. Also, that's quite the monster near the end, right? And this one, well, I just can't wait for this one:
Playlists from the past few days:
3/20:
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
3/19:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Finn Andrews - One Piece at a Time
Kevin Ayers - Bananamour
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Card of the day:
I keep seeing this one. There's definitely something more below the surface here, something I don't have the time to research at the moment. Deep dive later on.
Wow. I didn't even know this was coming. I've never been a very active Cranberries fan, despite the fact that I loved their sound. Zombie and Dreams were HUGE parts of the musical landscape of my youth, but I never really followed through on their albums. Then, maybe ten years ago, I picked up Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We and experienced a brief fascination with the band again after the use of one of their songs in the movie, The Sound of My Voice. I had just fallen head over heels in love with The Smiths - another band I had previously only dabbled with - and with their music floating through my head 24/7, I began to realize a lot of other bands were directly influenced by them, The Cranberries one of them.
When Dolores O'Riordan tragically passed away in 2018, an unexpected thing happened on Los Angeles radio - everybody began playing The Cranberries again. What's more, from what I gather in my little snippets of FM radio at work, they still play them. Often. This feels a bit like some sad triumph for a great band that kind of disappeared for years, only to resurface after tragedy. Fast forward to April 26th this year, and apparently we get the final album The Cranberries recorded with O'Riordan and then, that's it. This is the first single, and both the song and the video are emotional heavy weights in light of everything that's happened. A fitting tribute to the late O'Riordan, whose voice was really unlike anyone else's on Earth.
I received and began reading The Art of Hunting, the second book in Alan Campbell's Gravedigger Chronicles, and I can already tell I'm going to freak out when it's over, knowing there's a third volume finished that Tor won't publish. I can't express how high a regard I hold Campbell's writing in; I did when I read the Deepgate Codex, and the Gravedigger series feels like a serious level up from that, so in my mind, this is a fantastic example of expertly rendered world-building fantasy that does not succumb to "Tolkienism."
Yeah, I made that term up.
Anyway, thirty pages in, and The Art of Hunting has me as strongly as Sea of Ghosts did.
Playlist from 3/17:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Card of the day:
A lot of ending this morning. I'm reading this one at face value: I'll finish the reading of Shadow Play today. I had an excellent session yesterday, and I really can't stress what a game changer reading out loud has been for me. I'm finding the book very much on track, and hearing it out loud is helping iron out little inconsistencies in tone, syntax, grammar, and detail.
Friday March 15th was the three-year anniversary of Tom's death. This year it blind-sided me, and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even realize it until the morning of the 16th, when K reminded me. Tom - wow. When I stop to consider it, I can still feel his loss like it's a wound that's only scabbed over. You know, the kind you bump against the inside of your dresser drawer that sticks, and it opens and gushes blood and pain for a few hours. That's exactly what contemplating my 'former life' is like, in regards to Tom (and Tom alone). You'd think with the number of friends I've lost in my life - an inordinate amount by most people's standards - death would come a bit easier. And I guess it kind of does. But when the loss is someone you see everyday, that you live with, it's different. And Tom stuck with me through the worst time of my life, and what's more, made it clear he understood and wanted to help me persevere. That's pretty insane, if you ask me. The bond we had was unlike any I've had with a cat before or after, and I am definitely a cat lover. Anyway, Tom, I miss you. I'll be raising a pint in your honor later tonight. In the meantime, this one's for you, my friend:
**
If you want to see the best goddamn coverage of SXSW, click over to Heaven is an Incubator's page and feast your eyes on the meat and potatoes of the yearly fest. You can find coverage on a ton of sites, but not like this. Tommy goes out of his way every year to burrow in deep and really find the stuff that matters, not just the stuff everyone already wants to read about. In years past he usually posts about bands that seep up throughout the subsequent years into taking the spotlight, and I'd wager this year is no different. Also, he's started a 'daily jam' posting schedule that I absolutely adore. Link to Heaven Is An Incubator HERE.
**
Friday night, K and I saw Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats at the Wiltern. WOW! Seriously these guys blew me right the hell away. I mean, I knew they'd be good, but this was another level. All business, no nonsense, Uncle Acid easily goes into the category of 'Best bands I've seen live.' Tight performance, heavy as hell, and awash in Occult/psychedelic imagery, I still can't stop thinking about how great their set was. And as much as I dig their albums, none of them do the band's sound full justice. Neither does this video, from youtube Chicanochrist, but it gives you a sense of their visual presence:
Uncle Acid's Wasteland album might not have made it into my top ten of 2018, but I love it and couldn't wait to see it live. Especially because I had no idea what to expect. I'd never seen what the members of the band look like, and especially with Kevin Starrs' unique voice, I harbored a strange, almost B-movie idea of the face attached to the voice. This ambiguity is a rarity these days, and as much as it is partially of my own design, I feel like it's also part of the band's mythos. So when faced with having the curtain pulled back by seeing them live, I had to embrace the idea of giving that ambiguity up.
But you know what? It didn't happen.
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats took the stage under darkness, with a video image and an elongated version of the loud speaker announcement that begins Wasteland playing over the speakers. From there they ripped directly into album opener I See Through You, then proceeded to plow through song after song, hoping from Wasteland to Bloodlust to The Night Creeper, no acknowledgement of the crowd until after six or seven songs, when the man I'm assuming was Kevin Starrs simply asked how we were doing. Of course, he didn't wait for a reply before kicking into Crystal Spiders from the band's recently re-released demo, Vol. 1.
The reason I can only assume our addresser was Kevin Starrs is because A) he was standing in the middle, and B) he was playing guitar and singing into a microphone. However - and maybe this is simply my self-imposed ignorance of the members of the band, which, as you can no doubt tell from above I prefer - but stage left was another man playing a guitar and singing into a microphone. The music was played so flawless, executed in such a concise manner, that you couldn't tell who was singing or playing what. And other than one subsequent brevity to the crowd, there was no speaking in-between songs. The performance was all about the music and the aesthetic, that's it. So in my mind, the band fully retained their enigmatic presence. Which is awesome, because I love the mythos I perceive around these guys; the evocation of that strange era of the 60s/70s when hippy dippy free love turned into hard drugs, black magick and satanism. This is the first band I've encountered since My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult back in the early 90s that feels dangerous in some capacity.
Opening was local band Twin Temple. My good friend Chris from The Thirsty Crows and The Horror Vision turned me onto these guys a couple weeks ago, and they did not disappoint live. Self-described as "Satanic Doo-Wop," I'd say a more accurate description is a Satanic Amy Winehouse. Either way, check out this video:
Finally, it's St. Paddy's day! Since our new place is considerably smaller than my former residence, I'm unable to hold my annual party, and as such my 'St Paddy's Spirit' is considerably diminished. I've got a corned beef in the slow cooker, and some Guinness to quaff, but I'm not even really in the mood to watch State of Grace - which I'll probably watch and be consumed by anyway.
Playlist from 3/14:
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Thin Lizzy - Fighting
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Playlist from 3/15:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Nick Lowe - The Jesus of Cool
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Playlist from 3/16:
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Card of the day:
Hod, the area of Prudence, defined by Merriam-Webster as the ability to govern and discipline oneself with the use of reason. This applies directly to the self-destructive feelings I have toward a certain project I have right now, one that the carelessness of of one of those involved has led to a flurry of thoughts on my part to end the project. Anger and frustration are a natural reaction when the carelessness of others directly affects our plans, lives, etc. But instead of lashing out, it's always better to just take it on the chin and continue. If, that is, it's something and someone you care about.
