I've been on a Ravenettes kick for the first time in a while as of yesterday, and I had completely forgotten that one of my favorite bands covers one of my favorite songs. And their take is great; where the original takes you deep into some sandy cave in the Arabian Desert, the Raveonettes keep the psychedelic aspect but transport it to a subterranean cave that might have been stumbled upon while walking on the beach in some deserted, exotic location. So good.
**
I've already blown through 2/3 of Nathan Ballingrud's short story collection Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, and wanted to slow down on it for a minute. Coincidentally, my friend Maddy and I have been attempting to do a synchronized read of Gemma Files' Experimental Film for quite some time - we got the book a year or so ago - and just haven't had a chance to lock schedules. Well, that changed Saturday, and as of yesterday I'm 60 pages in and HOOKED. I'll talk about this more as I go through it, but as of now, I see what the hype was about.
**
Playlist from 5/20:
Jeff Whalen - Man of Devotion
Jeff Whalen - The Alien Lanes
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart
As we entire the final week of Joe Bob Briggs' inaugural season of The Last Drive-In on Shudder, I thought I'd post one of my favorite clips from the man.
I didn't have cable growing up, so I never got to experience JBB in his previous iterations. I seriously don't think I'd ever even heard of him before Shudder brought him on last summer for that first, 25 hour marathon - the origin of this clip. I've fallen in love fast, though. After last week's episode (The Stuff and Street Trash), I actually threw on his Thanksgiving Dinners of Death to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre with his asides (I missed the beginning of it during the original, Holiday airing). That's something I never thought I'd do - watch a film I respect as much as TCM more for interruptions than the film itself. But JBB is a fount of information, and despite the weakening of a viewings immersions with his interruptions, I've seen TCM many times, but never with the Joe Bob's annotations, which I'd imagine will add quite a bit of context to subsequent viewings, much the same as Brad Shellady's 1988 documentary Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait, which I love as much as the original film.
I'll miss Joe Bob in the off season; there's been something amazing about watching this live every week I'm able, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting these episodes throughout the interim between this and what I hope will be another season somewhere not too far down the line.
**
I was able to catch up on a lot of reading this weekend, and one of the comics I blew through several issues of was Gunning for Hits. This book - published by Image Comics - is fantastic, especially if you're a music lover. Writer Jeff Rougvie brings all the insight from a career producing some of the biggest and most influential bands in history - David Bowie and Elvis Costello to name a few - into the story of Martin Mills, former Government Black Ops Agent turned A&R man, signing bands in 1987 New York. What we have is a brilliantly entertaining and educational book that really shows how the industry used to work, woven in with dramatic situations that range from the on-the-road hi jinx of a newly signed band in the pre-Grunge era (think Noel Monk's 12 Days on the Road) combined with a whirlwind tutorial of the back-room goings on of the men who made the hits. And the back matter alone is worth the price of admission, where Rougvie further hashes out for the laymen just how that giant dinosaur system used to work.
Also, as you can see, there are a lot of allusions in the book for music nerds to get excited over.
**
Playlist from 5/19:
Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
Melvins - Stoner Witch
Hall and Oats - Essentials
Card of the day:
Careful consideration; be aware of anxious motivation, and those who might be anxiously motivated.
Earlier today I found myself scouring Nathan Ballingrud's Twitter feed for a drawing a fan drawing he had posted earlier in the month. To say Wounds: Six Stories From the Border of Hell is blowing me away is an understatement; comparisons to Clive Barker's early work are definitely warranted, but Ballingrud has his own style and it's one I love. The Barker comparison, to me, is most earned by way of both author's love of desecrating flesh. I remembered seeing Mr. Ballingrud post this piece of fan art - a drawing of one of the Black Iron Monks from collection's opening story The Atlas of Hell. While searching for the drawing, I found Mr. Ballingrud had posted the teaser for the new film by Perry Blackshear, director of 2015's They Look Like People. Apparently The Rusalka has been re-titled The Siren. Either way, this teaser is creepy as all hell - primarily due to the sound, which is always a huge sell for me - and I can't wait to see this one.
**
Playlist from 5/18:
Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
The Beatles - Abbey Road
**
No card again today. This is a short one, banged out at the start of a solitary hour I've stolen to try and finish the story I began in Spokane, and which, despite the cards telling me to let it rest, won't leave me be.
Many thanks to Mr. Brown for alerting me to this new Mike Patton project, a collaboration with historic Serge Gainsbourg collaborator Jeanne Claude-Vannier. You can pre-order the album from Ipecac Records HERE; Corpse Flower is scheduled to drop September 13th.
**
I finished Alan Campbell's The Art of Hunting this morning, and now I must HOWL at the fact that there is a third book completed and TOR baulked at publishing it! WTF! Mr. Campbell doesn't have very much of an internet presence to speak of - can't blame anyone on that philosophy - so, although two or three years ago there was an update on the possibility of him releasing the book digitally, there's been nothing since. Please! I need to read the third book NOW!
**
Lacking a third volume of Campbell's Gravedigger Chronicles, I've moved into one of my two most anticipated books of the year: Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories From the Border of Hell. This is the collection that re-publishes Mr. Ballingrud's masterpiece of short, Weird fiction The Visible Filth that I have expounded on often in these pages since I discovered it in late 2015, and adds to it five other short stories that, if the first one is any indication - and I'm sure it is - are brilliant! Such a great time for lover's of dark fiction!
Wounds comes to us just slightly ahead of the first cinematic adaptation of Ballingrud's work, director Babak Anvari's take on The Visible Filth, also titled Wounds. I believe the arrival of this one-two punch will be the opening salvo on the establishment of Ballingrud as a major force in the modern Horror Lexicon. And that makes me incredibly happy.
**
Playlist from 5/16:
The Cure - Disintegration
Blackwater Holylight - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Bauhaus - In the Flat Fields
Clint Mansell - Out of Blue OST
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
Melvins - Houdini
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Helms Alee - Noctiluca
Playlist from 5/17:
The Cure - Disintegration
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Beach House - 7
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Melvins - Houdini
Melvins - (A) Senile Animal
Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks
Big Business - The Beast You Are
One of the bands that Jonathan Grimm turned me onto during his visit last month is Blackwater Holylight. I dug their sound the moment I heard it, but didn't get back around to giving them my full attention until yesterday, when I listened to BWHL's 2018 self-titled album about six times in a row. Fantastic record, kind of sounds like the mythical place where Black Rebel Motorcycle Club meets the Doom scene, if the ladies from Veruca Salt were on back-up vocals. This is one of those every-song-is-great records, so when you have a moment, check it out.
**
Gideon falls continues to blow my freakin' mind every month. I had not anticipated the scope of this book to incorporate anything that happened in this week's issue 13, least of all that the promise made by the cover would bear fruit. Subtle shades of Victoriana (it's not ostentation enough for me to call it full-on Steam Punk, but it has a hint of that delicious flavor, a flavor like most, best used sparingly):
Playlist from 5/15:
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Faith No More - King for a Day
Beastmilk - Climax
Beastmilk - Use Your Deluge
Grave Pleasures - Dreamcrash
Blackwater Holylight - Eponymous
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock
Tennis System - Pain EP
Misfits - Earth A.D.
Uniform & The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing
Somnium Nox - Apocrypha - EP
To continue the 'unsung' string I began the other day by posting FNM's Ugly in the Morning, I thought I'd start today with a track from Godflesh's 2001 final album (at the time) Hymns. I love this entire album; some purists disregard later Godflesh for the way Justin K. Broadrick begins to segue into the more ambient, pastoral sound of Jesu. For me, my love of Godflesh isn't about one album or another, but the overall arc. Which, by the way, continues to this day in fine form. Anyway, a great track from an outstanding album.
**
NCBD is a light one. Good deal; saves me some money and drops the latest issue of one of my favorite books in my hands. Win win.
Man, look at that cover! Gorgeous!
**
Playlist from Tuesday, 5/14:
Godflesh - Hymns
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Blut Aus Nord - Odinist: The Destruction of Reason By Illumination
Blut Aus Nord - MoRT
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification
Fenn - Dustwalker
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Jed Kurzel - The Babadook OST
**
Card of the day:
Okay, full disclosure: if you go back a few months, I pulled this card. I'd left it in the deck on purpose, thinking I may find a way to interpret it into my overall, personal theory of reading this deck as a singular quanta of information, instead of as a collection of individual cards. Does that make sense? Maybe not. This is kind of free-form, impromptu logic, but isn't that what Tarot and Divination supposed to be at least partially about? What good is it to memorize 'readings' and definitions for objects that are supposed to represent aspects of our collective and individual unconscious? Anyway, after the first time I pulled this card and logged it here, I didn't draw it again until recently. But now, I've pulled it three times in the last two weeks, and although I'd kind of reversed on logging it here until now, with this new draw, I feel I have to look deeper (I say that sometimes and then don't have time to do it). To begin with, I pulled two more cards after, to try and clarify:
Okay, so it's going to take all - or at least a lot - of my Will to discover something that has been occulted to me. After some digging, it looks as though I will be beginning HERE and, perhaps more interestingly, HERE.
I've had FNM on the brain of late, specifically King for a Day. Ugly in the Morning has always seemed a classic to me - well, every track on King is a classic, in my opinion at least - but it remains a bit unsung in my head, as in it's never a song I think or discuss first when talking about the band or the album. Contemplating this lead to the idea to post, and searching for the song on youtube this live version came up. Really cool to see this live from back in the day. There are currently conflicting reports of the band working on new music; Patton says they're not and the rest of the guys say they are, so who knows what may one day come down the pipes, if anything. I've recently begun to wonder if we might not see FNM with a different singer again at some point, or new band altogether, comprised of Bottom and Gould, at the very least.
**
Playlist from 5/13:
Godflesh - Pure
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music
ACDC - Highway to Hell
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street OST
Blut Aus Nord - The Odinist
**
Card of the day:
The marriage of two forces/ideas into one. I'll read this as a pat on the back for continuing to develop the different voice and ideas I'm applying to writing Ciazarn, which is wholly outside my comfort zone.
Soviet Soviet performing Fairy Tale, the lead track from their 2016 album Endless, live on KEXP!
**
Congratulations to all my HWA brothers and sisters who won awards last night at the Bram Stoker Awards! Mike Glyer has a list of the winners up on HERE, on his Fanlight Zone website. Check it out!
**
Kind of addicted to the A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST. I'd never seen the film before; despite countless recommendations it seemed to remain perpetually on the list. That changed this past Friday when Joe Bob Briggs showed it on The Last Drive-In. LOVED it. Loved it so much, but I need to have an immersive viewing, one without JBB's wonderful sidebars, which I love and can help ease the way for a movie like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but which impede the full effect of something like Ana Lily Amirpour's B&W, Arthouse Vampire masterpiece.
Also, the OST is chock full of unbelievable music, pretty much all from artists I am - for the moment - unfamiliar with. Lots of new music heading my way, which always makes me happy!
Playlist from 5/11:
Faith No More - King for a Day
Various Artists - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night OST
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Lovett - The Wind OST
Playlist from 5/12:
Faith No More - King for a Day
L7 - Scatter the Rats
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was
Godflesh - Pure
Card of the day:
The Fiery aspect of Fire - Pure Will. Which is what I will need to get through the day, I think. Long work weekend, followed by a rough Monday morning so far. I'll do what I always do - put my head down and charge through, stealing any moments I have along the way to work on Ciazarn, a growing obsession now that I've found the voice for it.
Yesterday I gushed for Emma Tammi's The Wind, today I'll gush for the score. I didn't know anything about Lovett, AKA Ben Lovett, but he's done quite a few scores, especially of late. You might know his music from The Ritual, The Wind, or I Trapped the Devil (which is one of the next movies on my to-watch list). The cool thing with this score though, is I've been working on this Ciazarn book with Jonathan Grimm, and I have a ton of research hours put in, an outline for the first issue/chapter, but I've been unable to find the voice for the actual prose. And a large part of the reason for that is I didn't have the right musical soundtrack to write it to. Music is essential to my writing process, and most of what I listen to evokes my usual tone, where let's say the stuff in A Collection of Desires is a nine on the darkness meter and Shadow Play is a four, and all of it is modern. Ciazarn is a completely different animal. It's 1930s Dustbowl, and it's dark, but it's told through the eyes of a ten-year-old, so that makes it less dark at times than most of my characters, and more dark other times, the hard part being able to tell where each is appropriate for the sake of the story. Anyway, with Lovett's OST for The Wind, I knocked out and polished a pretty fantastic opening paragraph yesterday, so I am excited!
**
Playlist from 5/10:
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
The Black Queen - Infinite Games
Lovett - The Wind OST
Thought Gang - Eponymous
Vanessa Williams - Dreaming' (Single)
**
Card of the day:
Feels good, the sturdy symmetry of the Threes. Feels like where I'm standing right now. Of course, from Three you inevitably have to move to Four, which is a little less stable, but I'll enjoy the feeling of having both feet firmly on the ground for the moment.
Despite the holes in my memory that surround my viewing of Andy Muschietti's first chapter of IT, I'm excited as hell for the sequel. This trailer was an interesting choice, and I think I much prefer seeing what appears to be an almost full scene from the film instead of a three-minute montage that really just ends up showing us too much.
**
I'm working all weekend, so today is my day off. I've learned to look forward to these weekday mornings - I can wake up, read for a bit while I brew some coffee, then settle in with a movie. Two weeks ago my Friday morning movie was David Robert Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake, and I'm still humming from that one. For today, I'd previously set my sights on Emma Tammi's The Wind. Really good. I feel like my open air viewing on the tv in our bedroom - which is not hooked to a proper sound system, as the one in our living room is - cheated me of a more enriching sonic experience then I first realized. But the logistics of watching the flick in the better room were a toss-up since I'm not the only one home, so I opted for the more isolated room despite its subpar audio set-up. I can see where a theatrical viewing, or headphones perhaps even more so, could make this film an even more intense experience. That then, is what my eventual second viewing will be focused around (so sorry I missed this at Beyondfest last year).
And being that this is my day off, last night I stayed up and watched Pledge, a film that has already gained the reputation of being 'too much.' I loved the set-up, loved the camerawork, set design, everything. And although Pledge definitely dips a few toes into the 'torture porn' aesthetic, I ended up really enjoying it. As for the movie being, 'too much,' I know the exact scene that elicits this response from people. I'm pretty squeamish, however, if you've read and learned to love Bret Ellis' American Psycho like I have, you'll do fine. Incidentally, Ellis' work feels like it a very large influence on Pledge, which also added to my enjoyment of the viewing. Pledge is currently on HULU, which really kind of shocked me
**
These isolated mornings are when I normally get a hankering for some Black Sabbath. For being one of my favorite bands, Sabbath's music is an extremely personal experience for me, and thus usually best when experienced alone. So I don't clock nearly as many hours with the group that I used to. At this point however, their music is in my blood, and when I do get a few moments to give one of those first eight records my undivided attention, it always supercharges the music for me. After the movie this morning, I settled in with Master of Reality on my headphones, and today Sweet Leaf really did it for me.
**
Playlist from 5/09:
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber III EP
Hall & Oats - Apple Music Essentials
Melvins - Houdini
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Earth - Cats on Briar (pre-release single)
Earth - The Color of Poison (pre-release single)
Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutes Meae
Thought Gang - Eponymous
I totally missed that Laird Barron's new novel, Black Mountain, came out this past Tuesday. I cannot wait to read this. As the second in his new, hopefully ongoing, Isaiah Colerige series, this promises to be another fantastic read, just like last year's Blood Standard.
Mr. Barron's website is HERE, and you can buy the book from a local brick-n-mortar bookstore if you're lucky enough to still have one, or order it HERE.
**
Playlist from 5/08:
Various Artists - Singles OST
Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Twin Peaks: FWWM OST
Bad Luck - Four
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock
Ghost - Prequelle
Ghost - Infestissumam
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Opeth - Blackwater Park
I've been hearing great things about this, however I also heard great things about Severin Fiala and Veronica Franz's previous film, Goodnight Mommy, and I absolutely hated that, so I am going into The Lodge with manageable expectations.
For the record, I found Goodnight Mommy to be a very well-made film, with fantastic visual and aural aesthetics, however, the 'twist' was obvious from the first scene and the film played out pointlessly cruel. Much of it was just in very poor taste, in my opinion.
**
Damn it Mondo, another record I cannot resist drops tomorrow at noon:
**
Playlist from 5/07:
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Twin Temple - Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound... Satanic Doowop
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Lustmord - The Word as Power
Ghost - Meliora
**
Card of day:
From the Grimoire: "The Fiery aspect of Fire. Pure Will. Creative Power that can tip into imbalance if one is not careful." See that horse? if the Knight is sitting wrong or ill-prepared, he's falling off.
I'll admit that I am skeptical as all hell about new music from Tool. I love the band, or perhaps that feeling is better expressed in the past tense; the idea that it's been 13 years since 10,000 Days makes me wonder. Then again, I understand how life runs away with your time. I would have preferred to hear this as an actual album track, instead of a live one with a lot of close-talking crowd noise, but at this point, curiosity got the better of me.
**
Tommy from Heaven is an Incubator has a fantastic article up on Entropymag. In it, he juxtaposes his long-time love affair with the SXSW festival from his life before having children to his life with children. It is one of my favorite things I've read so far this year. Read it HERE.
**
NCBD tomorrow and here are my picks for the week:
Lodger has perplexed me. I've enjoyed it, but I'm confused and feel as though I'm missing something. My plan is to sit down and reread the entire five-issue run later this week and see how it pans out.
LOVE this John McCrea alt cover. Good to have Deadly Class back; if you haven't watched the SyFy show yet, it's all up streaming on the network's app and it is fantastic.
This book just gets better and better.
The return of the sleeper hit from 2018. Can't wait.
**
Playlist from 5/06:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Chasms - The Mirage
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor
King Buffalo - Longing to be the Mountain
Tomahawk - Anonymous
Nachtmystium - Black Meddle II: Addicts
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Atrium Carceri - Cellblock
**
Card of the day
Emotional purity that can cloud the head, alter the perception of self, in both good and bad ways. This feels like a direct reference to incidents with peripheral people in my life that have affected my own. And this interference, as I'll refer to it, has pissed me off enough that it has clouded my own emotional stability, and thus, my headspace. I had an extremely unproductive day writing yesterday. I 'punched in' and put in the time, but felt utterly useless. That's okay, that happens sometimes, and from my experience you just have to deal with it. You suck up the bad, knowing the good always follows and outweighs it. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating and, eventually, hellishly introspective to sit and peck at the keys for two hours with nothing that feels like a result following from it.
Incidentally, I also suspect these periods follow rabid involvement in slightly frivolous music. I'm not connecting with much sonically right now, as I come off my Rob Zombie binge, and it bugs me. This Atrium Carceri is the new thing in a while that feels like it is moving and inspiring me.
I have not talked enough about The Thirsty Crows new album in these pages. Hangman's Noose, available from Batcave Records, is easily going to slip into my top five albums of the year. Over the last week or so, it has become one of those records I put on and end up listening to three or four times in a row; at fourteen songs/thirty-nine minutes, it's a perfect amount and yet not quite enough, so that by the time I reach the cover of Dramarama's Anything, Anything that finishes out the album, I'm ready for another full go-through. There's something epic about the way these guys approach Rockabilly; there's some great moments where the band members' love of metal comes through, and it blends perfectly with the 'billy aesthetic, so we get something both classic and refreshing. The mark of a great record, to be sure.
**
I recently interrupted my read of Alan Campbell's The Art of Hunting to act as an HWA colleague's first reader on his debut novel from Cemetery Dance. I'll post more about that once the release is officially announced, but in the meantime, since finishing that book, I jumped back into the second installment of Alan Campbell's Ghostdigger Chronicles, and just like that, I've fallen in head over heels again.
I can't recommend these books enough; people who know my tastes in fantasy fiction know I have little tolerance for 'High Fantasy.' But Campbell's Gravedigger books take one of the major tropes of High Fantasy, the inclusion of Dragons, and ports it into a truly fascinating world. A world where an ancient, almost extinct and now imprisoned race of cosmic sorcerers long ago tainted the Oceans with a baffling poisonous agent known only as Brine, making it toxic to most life. Humans who are exposed to Brine stiffen and crack like stone; full submersion - 'the drowned' - stay alive indefinitely, but change in strange and horrifying ways. And the sea life mutate horribly as well, only coming to the surface fleetingly, so that all the new forms are not necessarily known or understood, enormous boogey men of the depths. Oh, and the dragons, those are humans the Entropic Sorcerers long ago twisted into these massive new forms. And they're all insane, as you would be after going through such a thing.
I'm really not giving you much about the books, but it would be very hard for me to do these novels justice in only a few short words. All I can say is The Art of Hunting is turning out to be thrilling, and insanely more imaginative than the first volume, Sea of Ghosts. I know a lot of other folks out there that have similar tastes to my own - and those who do like High Fantasy - would probably all love these books.
There's an Amazon Link to buy these HERE. However, they're out of print and pretty expensive, so if you need an easier option, try HERE.
**
Playlist from 5/05:
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
James Brown - Black Cesar OST
**
Card of the day:
Moving forward. Which I am, by leaving two stories somewhat hanging and going full hilt on Ciazarn. So that feels good, to get validation from the cards.
I was skeptical at the beginning of this trailer, but Raimi's name soothed that a bit. By the end though, the concept and purported execution look fantastic, plus this looks to be receiving a theatrical release, and when was the last time you were able to see an alligator/crocodile attack flick in a megaplex? That alone seems as though it may be worth the cost of admission.
**
Well, only Joe Bob Briggs could get me to watch a film I'd long ago sworn never to watch. For the first time since the first week of JBB and Shudder's The Last Drive-In, I was able to sit down promptly at 6:00 PM and watch the show from the beginning. The first flick, Wolf Cop, was one I'd seen on the cue in Shudder but always passed over. I was pleased to see it pop up here, under the guidance of Joe Bob.
The second film was the one I anticipated with no small amount of reservation: Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. I know it's a classic, and it's artistically solid, but serial killer stuff - especially when offered up so realistically - gets way too deep under my skin. And I'd always imagined that, if I watched this flick, it would fall somewhere in line with Irreversible and Requiem for a Dream, two films I simply wish I had never seen. However, I took the plunge because with Joe Bob's interruptions, I wagered that the presentation would be considerably less immersive, and I was right. Couple this with the fact that I luckily left the room for a beer during the infamous home invasion scene, and I braved Henry with no mental or emotional scars, and was finally able to see Michael Rooker's break-out performance, the only aspect of the film that had ever intrigued me to begin with. That's not to say Henry isn't a well-made film; it is, and so are Irreversible and Requiem. These are just films that delve into areas I feel no need to expose my sometimes fragile little psyche to. And in the spirit of that, I'll skip posting the trailer for Henry here.
**
You may notice Rob Zombie's two most recent albums have suddenly begun popping up on my daily playlists. This is a surprise to me; I've long held White Zombie's final two records as being among the best metal albums ever, however, Rob Zombie's dissolution of that group for a catchy but ultimately dumbed-down version never sat right with me. Yet, I'll admit that, for better or worse, there must be a little hot topic in my soul, because Zombie's solo stuff is something that, every once in a blue moon, I get a taste for. It usually sees me beat the hell out of La Sexorcisto and Astro Creep for a few days, probably throw on House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects, and then go back to keeping RZ at arm's length. Normally Zombie's solo albums don't really factor in, and if they do, I can burn through what I like about the first three in a stripped-down playlist. And you'll notice that on 4/02 that's how my recent binge began, by snapping the "Essential Playlist" from Apple Music and running through the hits. But then a funny thing happened. I made it through said playlist - skipping the cover of grand funk railroad's egregious 'we're an american band,' a song I hate so much in all forms I can't even stand to capitalize the title when spelling it - and decided I wanted more. So I moved on to the two newest albums, one of which I'd given a shake back when it came out and laughed off as a blatant caricature of an artist's music I already consider a caricature. But you know what? At least for the moment, I'm really enjoying both records. There's a ton 'Zombie-isms' you have to roll with, but overall, they're fun in the most frivolous way. Take the song below; I absolutely love the sample that starts the song and how it morphs into a rhythm. The lyrics and delivery however, need to be taken with a grain of salt, as they're bad. And I'm not sure if the obvious classic Les Claypool delivery Zombie takes on those lyrics is enraging or endearing, but for now I just can't make it past how much I dig the rhythm of the song.
And we see by the video, all of Mr. Zombie's obsessions are, of course, still in place after all these years. Part of me recoils at my occasional dalliances with Zombie's music, but like I said, every now and again, it just scratches some itch that builds up over time.
Tonight might be a good night to finally show Kirsten The Devil's Rejects.
**
Playlist from 4/03:
Metallica - Garage Days Re-Revisited
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration...
Boy Harsher - Country Girl E.P.
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
The Atlas Moth - The Old Believer
Canadian Rifle - A Peaceful Death
Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "Enjoying the rewards of your endeavors."
I've been wanting to post this for a few days, but I haven't had a chance to even step foot on blogger due to crazy work hours and constant exhaustion. I'm a HUGE fan of the original Veronica Mars series - especially the first season - so I'm excited as hell for the new series and an impetus to re-watch those old episodes.
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This weekend it's Free Comic Book Day! Not sure if I'll be heading out to my beloved Comic Bug's annual gala, but if you're in Southern California and looking for something to do, Mike and Jun always have the best FCBD shindig. More info HERE.
Speaking of comics, this week was a light NCBD, but here's what I picked up:
And this one was HUGE. No spoilers here, but if you read The Walking Dead and haven't read issue 191 yet, stop what you're doing and go do that now!
Also, last weekend Jonathan Grimm got me hooked on the idea of reading comics on a Kindle. I'd read a few digital books before, but always on my laptop, and was never really a fan of it. With a Kindle or tablet however, it's pretty awesome. What else is pretty awesome is the fact that digital comics go on sale regularly. I'm not about to stop reading physical comics for my month-to-month titles, but for $3-$5 bucks a trade, I'm very much in the middle of a deep dive on stuff I've missed, am curious about, or that's out of print. First up was Grant Morrison's Animal Man trades; I read this title originally back in High School, circa '94, and it was one of the first books that blew my head wide open and transitioned me out of the superhero quagmire and into the Vertigo stuff. At some point I'm not sure what happened to the trades I had, and they are now well OOP, but on Kindle they're $4.99, so I picked up Vol. 1 and fell right back into this amazing book.
Next, for $2.99 I scored Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die. My good friend Mike Shin talked this character up on the DwC we did at his shop Amazing Fantasy in Chicago last December, and I'd been meaning to pick something up. For $3 I had no excuse. And, I mean, Frank Castle as the flame-headed spirit of Vengeance? In space? Former Herald of Galactus and associate of the Mad Titan?
Clearly, I'm still riding high off Avengers: Endgame, and it's reignited my love for Marvel. And for that price - how could you go wrong? If I'd paid $15-20 for this I'd probably not have dug it so much, but for what I paid I had a really fun time with it. Especially with Juggerduck...
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Last Saturday, an extended cast of The Horror Vision watched Jordan Downey's new film The Head Hunter. It's awesome! Here the trailer and links to our new episode:
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Silversun Pickups - Better Nature
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Playlist from 5/01
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Ghost - Meliora
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
Playlist from 5/02:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Jesus & The Brides of Dracula - Turning Teeth (Single)
Rob Zombie - Apple Music Essential Playlist
Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration...
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
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Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "Can be a bit of a cunt in matters pertaining to money or stability."
I've never really kept up with Rammstein, but I would definitely consider myself a fan. Ever since David Lynch introduced the German metal icons to popular culture in Lost Highway I've had an on again off again fascination/appreciation of their sound. That said, the only album I own is 2005's Rosenrot, which I adore, but which never prompted me to purchase any others. Because, I think, Rammstein is a little bit like ACDC to me; one album is really all I need. That said, the keyboard that kicks in at 0:34 on Radio essentially guaranteed I'd get excited for their new eponymous album, which can be pre-ordered HERE, and has a release date of May 17th.
Interestingly enough, Radio bled directly into another track the band released at the end of March. I like Deutschland even more than the previous, and holy smokes - the video! If you read these pages on a regular basis, you know I'm not much of a music video fan - I'll post them for songs, but end up never actually watching many of them. These two Rammstein videos though, wow! Talk about production value!
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Jonathan Grimm and I trekked out to Hollyweird yesterday afternoon to catch Avengers: Endgame. Those who know me, know my relationship with the Marvel movies has been complicated. I began an enormous fan, but somewhere around Civil War I checked out, due primarily to fatigue, but also a host of other, slightly convoluted problems. My main issue began to take root following an interview with American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, where Mr. Ball talked about how, in the studio system today (and this was at least four years ago), a movie like American Beauty would never be made at the level it was almost twenty years ago. I have long considered Mr. Ball's breakout opus to be one of the finest examples of filmmaking in decades, and the idea that a film of that calibre would be made on a considerably smaller scale to make room for more comic book movies terrifies me. I feel like, soon, there won't be any major movies that aren't comic book or pre-branded films (remember when this was only a concern for genre flicks? When there was still a corridor for studios to invest major funds on what we now collectively refer to as 'Prestige' films?)
Anyway, soapbox digression aside, I freakin' LOVED Endgame. Infinity War was a begrudging watch a few months ago on Netflix, just to make myself ready for this one, and I didn't love it. Maybe War suffered from home viewing - every time you pause it you see where you are in the egregious run time - but Endgame felt like such a better movie! And I had that feeling I did watching Age of Ultron four years ago, namely that I wasn't watching a movie so much as a comic book brought to life. I didn't know if I would dig Endgame or not, I was just rabid to know how this thirteen-year first phase ends, and let me tell you, it ends magnificently. I wept several times; not Logan sized tears, but sentimental, gooseflesh, 'This is my childhood right flashing before my eyes' tears, and it felt wonderful.
Now, I can't wait to see what they do next. And maybe I'll check out a few of those Marvel flicks I've passed over, starting with Spiderman: Homecoming, which Grimm considers his favorite Marvel movie.
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Playlists have been all over the place with Grimm in, but here's a smattering of the last two or three days:
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Blackwater Holylight - Eponymous
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Richard Einhorn - Shockwaves OST
Turning Teeth - Jesus & The Brides of Dracula (single)
Card of the day:
Okay, I pulled this card two days ago as well, but in spite of previously ascribing it value enough to log here, I skipped it an re-pulled. Getting this again today though, I'm going to log it and maybe spend some time reading randomly about the OTO. I'm not about to join, but it's been a while since I immersed myself in their lore, and maybe there's something there that can help one of my current projects.
Finally! Netflix's Dark, Season Two drops June 21st, and I cannot wait. Season one blew me away, even if it did take me two go-throughs to 'get' it. There are just so many characters, many of which are old white men with beards, and on first pass, I found myself having a difficult time differentiating between some of them. Second pass though, all that confusion dissipated, and I fell hard into the story. Not gonna lie, I'm baulking a little at the idea of the apocalypse being a plot point in season two, but Dark definitely gets the benefit of the doubt with me.
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Woke up and watched Under the Silver Lake again, this time with K. Even better the second time. Love this film, and now Turning Teeth is stuck in my head.
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Playlist from 4/26:
Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Stevie Nicks - Stand Back (Single)
Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (Single)
Suburban Living - Video Love (Single)
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
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Card of the day:
Power given purpose and direction. A definite nod to Ciazarn, which I need to stop researching and begin writing, but also a cue to my short story Trending Now, which I am about to submit for a fairly high profile anthology.
My good friend and increasingly frequent collaborator Jonathan Grimm flies in for a long weekend, so I took today off. With an open morning, I did what I've wanted to do all week - I rented Robert David Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake, altered my perception a bit, and fell into a film I'd ascribed an alarming amount of expectation to in the eight days or so since I first heard about it. With a run time of two hours and nineteen minutes, I knew I'd need a day off to give Mitchell's follow-up to It Follows a proper shake - lately anything with an above-average run time that I watch at night runs the risk of my nodding off. This isn't usually the film's fault; my early schedule and aversion to conservative bedtimes simply runs me ragged. All this aside, I'm happy to report I had a perfect morning, a perfect viewing experience, and I absolutely loved Under the Silver Lake. I don't want to say too much - I didn't even watch the trailer until after I'd seen the movie - so I'll leave you with three words: Approaching. Modern. Hitchcock.
That's big and hyperbolic, I know. Don't care. Visually, we still get some of that soft, pastel style of Mitchell introduced in The Myth of the American Sleepover and perfected in It Follows, though that has been combined with a real love of the medium, and the history of the Hollywood Thriller as a genre. The early scenes of Andrew Garfield's Sam following three girls in a convertible feel like they are pulled right out of Vertigo, as does the deference the story pays to the institutions and living spaces of Los Angeles, the likes of which were directed toward the cities and forests of Northern California in Hitchcock's masterpiece of obsession. Oh, and Disasterpeace knocks the score out of the park; gone are the synths, replaced instead with string-and-brass instrumentation one would also associate with Hitchcock, De Palma and their lineage, both forwards and backwards in time.
Oh yeah, and David Yow from the Jesus Lizard is in it. When is that not a sign of good things?
$5 rental on Amazon. Absolutely worth it, but wait until you have the time to sink slowly into a winding mystery. This films tastes best when allowed to breath.
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Playlist from 4/25:
Soundgarden - Louder than Love
Totalselfhatred - Eponymous
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Queens of the Stone Age - ... Like Clockwork
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Windhand - Eternal Return
Rounded the tunes out last night, driving home from Hollywood with KXLU program The Witching Hours as a sonic companion. GREAT show, and its host, DJ Marina, keeps an excellent website with news, prompt archives of playlists, and a bunch of other great stuff. Check it out HERE.
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Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "By adding to an idea's original form, we dilute it. Not inherently bad, just different. Expect ups and downs while fleshing out and developing anything."
From the forthcoming record Somebody's Knocking, out October 18th on Heavenly Recordings, who have a wealth of information about the making of the album and some great quotes from Lanegan HERE. You can pre-order Somebody's KnockingHERE, though at this point it's only for digital. Hopefully when we get another track, there will be a vinyl link for pre-order as well.
Coincidentally, I dug Bubblegum out recently and played the hell out of it for a day or two. Such a great album. I didn't realize there was a new Lanegan Band record in the pipes. Excited.
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The new Fangoria hits the shelves today. I have a copy on reserve at the Comic Bug, but after today I'm going to subscribe. There's a fantastic episode of the Shockwaves podcast from the last week or so with Fango editor-in-chief Phil Noble, where besides discussing all kinds of horror goodness, Noble talks about how, at this point, the revamped Fangoria is an expensive labor of love, and honestly, just spending the last few months with issue #2 I can see it. I make no bones about falling out of love with the previous incarnation of the magazine, which I thought Rue Morgue surpassed as the only 'need to read' horror zine on the stands some time in the early 00s. That said, Rue Morgue is still pretty damn cool, but Fangoria is back in a big way. Plus, between Fango and Ruck and Lark's Lazarus, I am LOVING the return of the prestige, quarterly format. So subscribing and supporting the mag at the source seems like the best thing to do if I want it to continue, which I do. You can subscribe too, if you click THIS link.
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Playlist from 4/23:
Boy Harsher - Careful
Bauhaus - Vol. 1
Melvins - Houdini
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - T.V.M.A.L.S.V.
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Interesting this pops up in my youtube feed this morning, as I spent a good deal of time yesterday listening to Boy Harsher's Careful, reflecting on how much I love this damn record. Having seen them live last year as my introduction, I could watch these two for hours. Something about them is completely enthralling. It doesn't really come out here, I think, because there's just one song, and not enough for them to warm up.
Also, maybe it's because K and I finally finished Bates Motel - awesome through and through, by the way, although none of season seasons 4 or 5 can match the pacing of three - but Augustus Muller looks a bit like Norman Bates in this video.
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NCBD tomorrow! I'm caught up and back in the flow, so here's my picks for the week:
Finally! Still one of the most intriguing books I read.
Having just caught up and read #3, it's no surprise Brubaker and Phillips' ongoing is one of my favorite books on the stands at the moment. I was way late to the Criminal Empire, many thanks to my good friend Joe Baxter for turning me onto the regular book. I'm hooked.
Shit. I missed issue 2, which means when the original Punk's Not Dead ended, I forgot to re-up the pull service on this second volume.
Big things ahead for this book and I can't wait.
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Playlist from 4/22:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Melvins - Houdini
Melvins - Stoner Witch
Boy Harsher - Careful
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers, and Queers
Misfits - Earth A.D.
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Sunn O))) - Kannon
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
From the forthcoming album Noctiluca, which drops on Sargent House this Friday! Can't f&*king wait! Pre-order physical HERE or digital HERE.
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The new film by It Follows director David Robert Mitchell drops on Amazon tomorrow (it was originally slated for today, but apparently got pushed back a day). I'm unclear if this will be available to rent or just buy. It's also playing a limited theatrical run in some city Monday through Wednesday this week. I've only known about this for about five days, and I've avoided all trailers or media, though I'm posting it here. It Follows is one of those films that immediately blew me away; I've never understood all the negativity thrown at that film. Also, The Myth of the American Sleepover was a great first film, so in my opinion, David Robert Mitchell is definitely someone I'm interested in keeping up with.
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Playlist from 4/20:
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Faith No More - King for a Day
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Windhand - Eternal Return
Zombi - Shape Shift
Paramore - Riot
The Rolling Stones - Tide High and Green Grass
Michael Parks - The Best of Michael Parks
This dropped a few days ago, but I haven't had time to post here. There's an article on Bloody Disgusting - I think - that mentions this show is going to be pulling a lot from Alan Moore's seminal run on the book, the one that not only redefined Wrightson and Wein's character, but arguably the comics industry in general. If I hadn't witnessed that insane Doom Patrol sequence I posted a few weeks ago, I'd probably be a lot more skeptical of this. As it stands, that's two shows on the DC Universe app that I want to give a shot. That said, I don't know that I intend on subscribing to a DC streaming app regardless of whether or not they bring up a show with Jesus handing out free passes, so I guess I'll wait and see. Still, kudos to DC on finally getting something going, because I happened to see about ten minutes of that JLA movie on cable in a hotel recently, and all I can say is, no thanks.
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My trip to the comic shop did NOT decimate my wallet, and now I've had a morning's worth of new books to read. My favorite this month? The return of Rucka and Lark's Lazarus, but in a quarterly, prestige format, with a shit ton of back matter:
Also, there's two big conflicts - probably wars, actually, coming in two of my favorite titles, and while I'm pretty excited, I'm also a little afraid of the body count that may follow as a result:
I'm especially concerned about what's coming in TWD. With issue 200 on the horizon, my prediction remains that Rick Grimes will die, probably before the anniversary issue, just because Kirkman likes to defy expectation.
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Didn't get to watch The Last Drive-In last night, so K and I will be watching Joe Bob this evening. Can't wait! And I've never seen either of the films he played this week.
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Playlist from 4/18:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Drab Majesty - Careless
Drab Majesty - Ellipses (Pre-release Single)
Playlist from 4/19:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Grand Duchy - Petite Fours
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Odonis Odonis - Reaction EP
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Faith No More - King for a Day
Thought Gang - Modern Music
Card for the day:
I really need to do a deep dive on this card. I'll not waste time with another abbreviated interpretation right now. Needless to say, I suppose I'm supposed to control my emotions, but that just doesn't seem to fit right now.
You know, just between Felte Records, Sargent House, and Dais Records I would be in musical heaven. Case in point today, here's a new track from Cold Showers' upcoming album Motionless, out May 24th on Dais Records! You can pre-order the album HERE.
Speaking of pre-ordering from Dais Records, the link to pre-order Drab Majesty's upcoming Modern Mirror landed in my inbox earlier today. Really excited for both these records. I already snagged my copy of the clear red vinyl, but there's plenty of vinyl, CD, whatever left if you go HERE.
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I can't remember if I've posted about the band Skating Polly here before or not, but the deeper my dive goes into this group, the more I think they may single-handedly usher in a return of the early 90s music sound. A good friend of mine has been chronicling their live shows with his camera for a while now; I saw the photos yesterday and they are awesome. And the band really looks like they sound, that is to say, even while they're paying homage to old Breeders, Nirvana, Pixies, whatever, they breathe a new life into it. Can't wait to see where their career takes them. Here's their website.
