Always a good day when there's a new Chelsea Wolfe video. One of my favorite artists insofar as how she puts imagery to her music; there's always a visual representation of the hollow loneliness that permeates her songs. Not sad loneliness, but the kind you feel when you're out in the desert, dwarfed by the environment around you, and isolated from other humans.
**
Kindle had a Dark Horse comics sale yesterday (it may still be in effect), and for $6.99 I picked up the Alien/Predator/Prometheus Fire and Stone collection. I've heard great stuff about this series, so I'm psyched to jump in, as while I enjoyed by recent viewing of Alien: Covenant for what it is, I would have definitely preferred if they didn't kill all the Engineers off between movies. I've said it many times now, as much as I love Aliens, the films are frustrating for sure, and nothing is more frustrating then their propensity in killing the most interesting characters OFF SCREEN.
Also in that sale, I scored the first Masters of the Universe Mini Comics collection for $5.00. This is pure nostalgia, pleasure reading. These comics are literally primordial Shawn, as I had MotU figures from the time of their initial release, and the accompanying mini comics were among the first comics I ever read, and thus are at least partially responsible for my continued love of the medium.
Also, my Uncanny X-Men re-read continues at a steady pace; I'm now up to Inferno, but I'm going to back track first and re-read the 1984 Magik mini-series first, as events in that series set-up the story that eventually culimates during Inferno. Also, and I'm putting this in print finally, my all-time favorite X-villains are by far Mr. Sinister, S'ym, and N'astirh.
Unbeatable when drawn by my X-Men dream-team of Silvestri and Green.
**
Playlist:
Orville Peck - Pony
The Jesus Lizard - Lash EP
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers
... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead - X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
Belong - October Language
Testament - The Gathering
Allagaeon - Apoptopsis
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Somnium Nox - Apocrypha EP
The Soft Moon - Deeper
U2 - War
There are two singles out right now from Pearl Jam's forthcoming album Gigaton, which you can pre-order HERE. Both songs are fantastic, but I feel like "Dance of the Clairvoyants" is the one everyone's talking about because of the Talking Heads-vibe that song has. I wanted to post "Superblood Wolfmoon" because it's also fantastic!
Here's where I offer my take on Pearl Jam. I've always respected them. I've always thought they make the music they want to make, and that's amazing in the era they started in and transitioned through. However, previously, my love of their music went like this: All of their debut, Ten. Both songs on the Singles soundtrack. About half of the follow-up Vs. About a third of Vitalogy, and then I tuned out. After Ten their ballads - the stuff that, through no fault of their own, ruled the FM airwaves while I was in high school - all just sounded like audio burlap to me. Drab, scratchy, and uncomfortable. Yet I applauded them for years when friends who were into them would play me their records. I just never really heard any of that stuff, some weird bug in my ear always turned the noise of my brain up and drowned out what was coming in through my ear. I've always wanted something to come along and push me into taking a walk through that now back catalogue, and these two songs may have done just that.
Thanks to Mr. Brown for always forwarding me the newest stuff when he hears it, and for Keller for curating youtube sessions that made me realize just what an unbelievably good person Eddie Vedder is; if I dive back into Pearl Jam's music now, it's largely because of knowing that.
**
K and I ventured out to the local theatre last night and saw Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man. Loved it! Awesome use and sustaining of tension; great atmosphere of fear and helplessness, made especially palpable by Elizabeth Moss' teeth-grinding performance. Really hits the notes on that sweet spot that exists between horror and psychological thrillers - think Pacific Heights and Jacob's Ladder as an example. Oh, and Whannell was not lying; to those who said the trailer gives away the entire movie, that is most definitely not the case.
**
Playlist:
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
The Jesus Lizard - Head
Pearl Jame - Gigaton (pre-release singles)
Pearl Jam - Vs
**
Card:
I've been out of touch with my Craft for the last three days. Time to get back on that horse and ride.
This one's been out there for some time, so I'm late to the game. During a back-and-forth listening session with a good friend on Wednesday, I discovered the Kacey Musgraves/Willie Nelson duet "Are You Sure."
Wow.
I know next to nothing about Ms. Musgraves, but when I saw Willie Nelson with her, I became instantly curious; while far from my bread and butter, Willie definitely fit a certain state of mind with me. I saw him live back in 2015 and he blew me away. As for this song, it's incredible. As Mr. Brown pointed out recently, she has a definite Patsy Cline/Loretta Lynn quality.
The video too, is shot in a throwback way that made me half expect to see a muppet sitting next to her when the camera began to pan to the left. It looks like 80s "live" television. Totally appropriate for the inner of the bar and feel of the song, which also harken back to a different era.
**
A new episode of The Horror Vision went up this past Monday. This is our spoiler-free review/reaction piece to The Lodge (loved it - hear why), as well as a discussion that includes AHS Hotel, Netflix's Castlevania and October Faction, Joe Begos' Bliss, and 2011's Fright Night remake, as well as a handful of other titles we've viewed recently. Oh yeah, and this episode's Classic Corner is none other than Tibor Takacs' 1987 The Gate! We love this movie so much, we even sneak in some thoughts on the sequel.
**
After finishing Chuck Wendig's frightening and timely Wanderers last week, a conversation with Ray from The Horror Vision prompted me to dig out a large part of Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men and begin plowing though it. I started just before the Mutant Massacre - which was about when I started reading X-Men back in the day - and plan on going up through Inferno. I might go past that, not sure yet. But I am SO looking forward to Inferno. It's been too long.
Also, the Sequart Documentary Chris Claremont's X-Men is now on Prime for free, so if you're a fan and haven't seen it, totally worth a watch.
**
Playlist:
The Vines - Total Depravity
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
16 Horsepower - Low Estate
Zombi - Shape Shift
Worm is Green - Automagic
Greg Puciato - Fire for Water (single)
Greg Dulli - Random Desire
Mazzy Star - So Tonite That I Might See
Grimes - Art Angels
Led Zeppelin - I
Led Zeppelin - IV
The Jesus Lizard - Lash
The Jesus Lizard - Head
The Jesus Lizard - Pure EP
Chris Connelly - Sleeping Partner
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Various - The History of Northwest Rock Vol. 2 (The Garage Years)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen
Grimes - Visions
**
Card:
Hacking off pieces in order to gain the time/vantage to reflect. I pulled a 'mental health day' yesterday, not from my day job, but from writing. The current global situation has got me down, and I've realized despite all my declarations that I will not vote for either of the two parties in hogging the US political system, I am indeed going to be casting a vote for one asshole in November simply to keep the bigger (biggest?) asshole out of office. I also realize that this won't work and we most likely have four more years of... this. Unless of course, Captain Trips wins the day and purges the planet of a large enough amount of the human population as to inspire a total societal change in this country.
I won't hold my breath. Fuck jetpacks, where's our Common Sense?
The new episode of The Horror Vision is up! As I mentioned yesterday, we start out with a Spoiler-Free review of The Lodge!
**
Speaking of Horror, here's a couple of upcoming horror trailers that caught my attention last week. The first, Saint Maud, looks promising, but also kind of looks like A24 fishing for another Hereditary. Either way, I'll give it a chance, because we all know trailers can make movies look more like other movies even if the film doesn't (nothing against Hereditary, I'm merely suspicious of derivative material):
Scare Package looks like it will, like a lot of anthologies, be hit or miss. Based on this trailer, I'll definitely give it a shot:
Also, look at the poster art for this one. Love it!
**
Playlist:
Hall and Oats - Greatest Hits
Odonis Odonis - No Pop
Greg Dulli - Random Desire
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
**
Card:
Might represent good news on the salary front. Which would be helpful in longer-termish plans I am making in my head.
I love the way, between this and the AHS 10 Cast announcement video published last week, Peck has swung back around and recaptured my imagination of late. Not that I ever leave the record very far behind - it's a staple and feels like it will be for the rest of my life - but it feels strangely timely again.
**
Saturday night K and I, along with 3/4 of the rest of The Horror Vision crew went to the theatre and supported the big-box roll out for Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's The Lodge. Fantastic film! I've jokingly been referring to it as the, "Feel good hit of the summer," simply to help me process just how damn dark it is, but overall, I really liked this one. Afterward, we recorded an episode of the podcast, so that'll be up in a couple of days or so.
**
Playlist:
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath
Odonis Odonis - No Pop
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
Myrkur - M
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Boy Harsher - Careful
Anthrax - Among the Living
**
Card:
A relaxing weekend, if a chilly one (I know, I know. I can hear my family and friends in the Frigid Midwest. Fuck me, California boy). Stability achieved after a stressful week on-call for Jury Duty. I got a lot of work done on Friday and Saturday, saw a great movie, and now it's time to use that clear head and march right back to work. Turning in a packet of docs to a collaborator today, hopefully we'll see some movement with that (eventually; long submission process), and it's back to my outlines for Shadow Play books Two and Three, which are more finished than not.
Looks fantastic; I love that Peele's Production is going for a sequel instead of a re-boot.
**
Playlist:
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Mol - Jord
Zombi - Shape Shift
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
Myrkur - M
The Smiths - Meat is Murder
**
Card:
Zenith of development. I'm very close to having everything in the arc of both Shadow Play Books 2 and 3 come into full alignment.
As a teenager, I must have gotten stoned and tranced on this song hundreds of times. Thank you and godspeed to one of the artists who made it possible.
Last night Bohren and Der Club of Gore released a music video - really a short film - for "Deine Kusine," the fifth track off their new record Patchouli Blue, available HERE. A great album, my favorite of the band's since 2000's Sunset Mission, which I've recently noticed is criminally hard to find.
**
Along with Netflix's Black Spot, which we're almost caught up with and which is becoming increasingly interesting, I've circled back around to two shows I've been meaning to watch for quite some time now. The first, which I binged several episodes of over the weekend, is Love, Death, and Robots, the David Fincher-produced anthology of short, animated films. Those who know me know that, for whatever reason, I really don't get into much animation. Aside from shows with nostalgic value and Cowboy Bebop - truly the work that transcends the genre/medium - animation usually does not connect with me. For this show, I feel like I'm getting more out of it than usual, and the premises so far have been very interesting, so I'm enjoying it. I especially liked Frank Balson's Suits, where the humdrum, simple country life of the farmer has evolved to include piloting mech suits to fight off alien invaders, and Alberto Mielgo's The Witness, which plays like Cold Hell with strippers.
The other show I've gone back to is Warren Ellis' Castlevania. This one, K and I had the missed opportunity of starting multiple times when it first landed, and each and every one of those viewing experiences resulted in our falling asleep. I had long suspected this was not the show's fault, and now that I've settled back into it and completed the first season - at a whopping four episodes - I'm hooked. The first three episodes we'd seen before, in parts multiple times, and they just didn't do it for me. Episode Four? Fantastic. I plan on binging the rest of this over the coming weekend, just in time for Season Three, which Ellis announced in his weekly newsletter recently, and which the trailer for just dropped last week:
**
New Comic Book Day is slight but marvelous:
Previously, whenever I see the new issue of either Black Stars Above listed on Comics List's New Comics This Week list, the solicitation is always at least one week before the book actually ships. I'm hoping that this time, that is not the case. Black Stars Above continues to astound me with it's complex narrative, fluid prose, and beautiful art. I could really go for all of that today.
**
Playlist:
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl
Second Still - Equals EP
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Odonis Odonis - No Pop
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Various Artists - The History of Northwest Garage Rock, Vol. 2
From Straight Songs of Sorrow, the new Mark Lanegan out May 8th via Heavenly Recordings. Pre-order HERE. Apparently, this record is "closely aligned" with Lanegan's forthcoming memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, out April 28th. Pre-order that HERE or HERE.
I can't wait to read that book!
**
Over the weekend, in the interest of starting something new and mostly unknown, K and I started Netflix's Black Spot, which comes to the US via France.
Although highly derivative of Twin Peaks, Dark, and True Detective Ssn 1, I'm enjoying Black Spot quite a bit; it borrows heavily from all three aforementioned shows, but is definitely its own thing. I'd definitely recommend it for fans of those shows and thrillers in general. I've seen references now to both this and Dark as belonging to a genre being called "Into the Woods," and although genre splitting and tagging can become tiresome, I kinda dig that. Suffice it to say, Black Spot is creepy, extremely well lit and well shot, and the voice they've given to the forest is mysterious and exciting.
**
This happened last night and I am still unable to completely wrap my head around it:
Apparently, in honor of Relapse's 30th Anniversary, they chose people who pre-ordered records in the past few months and randomly awarded them these nifty golden tickets. What's it good for?
Whoah. I don't know that I've won anything since 1991, when I called Chicago's seminal Rock statin The Loop and won 10 free lawn tickets to see Guns n' Roses on their Use Your Illusions tour. Of course, I never got to cash those in, because two nights before that Chicago show, Axl jumped off the stage in Cincinnati, OH and clocked a dude with a camera, subsequently landing in jail.
One reason why I've always disliked Axl.
Anyway, looks like I have a lot of vinyl coming my way this year. Very cool. Thank you Relapse Records and Happy 30th Anniversary - here's to 130 more (at least)!
**
Playlist:
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Digipak)
Mol - Jord
Various Artists - The Void (OSM)
Frederic Kooshmanian - Black Spot (OSM)
Me and That Man - Songs of Love and Death
Burzum - Filosofem
Grimes - Miss Anthropocene
Greg Dulli - Random Desire
Various Artists - Garage Rock (Compilation used in Black Spot)
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
The Gutter Twins - Adorata
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
**
Card:
I've done a few pulls over the last few days that haven't been logged here, almost all of which have been Swords. The Nine of Swords - Cruelty has followed me a bit. Swords is the Suit I know the least in the Tarot, and this card in particular is, at a glance, always tempting to fear based on face value. However, from the Grimoire:
"The airy nature of Intellect, it is difficult for Swords to rest. Rabid analyzation and thinking in general can produce a loop that one becomes trapped in, the ultimate revelation that Nothing really leads Anywhere and in the end, there is Nothing."
Now, juxtapose this with a clarification card I drew and an interpretation begins to take shape.
Reality is breaking a bit, as Chuck Wendig's Wanderers escalates into a pandemic that cuts a massive swathe through the human population. Oh, and the disease's origin? Bats.
Can you see how that would start to saturate my reality? Also, it was the day after I started reading this book that the first really scary images from China began to appear back in January, and since, well, the arc of the book has been so parallel to the arc of real life (except, thus far, we're on a MUCH smaller scale) that I've had a lot of time to reflect on everything. Interestingly enough, long periods of time reflecting on everything, on all of our existence, leads to the ultimate understanding that Nothing is at the heart of it. Humanity holds itself up by the bootstraps, and although there are more good than bad humans - I think - if things go ugly, it doesn't really matter for the overall organism of the Planet Earth. In fact, it might be better for Her if we were to largely die off. I hope not, because there's a lot of humans I really like - including myself. But then, it's one thing to have an objective view of an extinction event, it's quite another to be able to conduct yourself that way.
Greg Dulli's new solo album Random Desire is out today, and as I sit here this morning listening to it, it's fantastic and will no doubt jump start a binge on his various projects. This is the first of Dulli's solo albums I've listened to, and I'm remedying that as well. 2005's Amber Headlights is cued up and ready to roll in just a little bit.
**
Last night while reading Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, the book jumped from a solid three to an all-out five. Page 392, just over the half-way point. Game-changing development I did not see coming. At all. This book is about so many things, such an intricately crafted puzzle that also, reads in an eerie harmonic with events unfolding in China. This real-life effect is a first for me with a novel, and it's adding a layer that is as disconcerting as it is riveting.
I am so utterly infatuated with this novel now and fully intend on reading more of Mr. Wendig's work.
**
Playlist:
Antemasque - Eponymous
The Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Drab Majesty - Careless
Myrkur - M
**
Card:
Appropriate, yet a bit harrowing based on all the "Age of Horus" that comes up in a lot of the research I've been doing for Shadow Play Books 2 and 3, particularly ideas I'm playing with from Donald Tyson's essay, Enochian Apocalypse, which I first encountered in Disinformation's Modern Occult Tome Book of Lies, but which is readily available online HERE. I fully realize Tyson's work here is complicated in its presentation - read some valid critiques of it HERE - but the idea of Crowley cracking open the Watch Towers and poisoning humanity's collective unconscious just before the start of WWI is as chilling as it is fascinating.
My cousin Charles turned me on to Porridge Radio while I was in Chicago, and they made a huge impression pretty much from the moment he hit play on "Sweet." I immediately felt an Eagulls vibe from their music, and being that lately, I've had frequent lapses into "Where are they now?" reveries concerning that band, this comes at just the right moment.
**
The good folks at Omnium Gatherum - publishers of Robert Payne Cabeen's brilliant novel Cold Cuts, just put up a cool title sequence and I had to post it. Love this.
**
It's time once again for...
Season Four, Episode Six, "Sanguinarium" guest stars Richard Beymer and puts him at the heart of a Medical Coven of Black Magick Practitioners. That sounds a bit mixed up, but keep in mind, this is back in the days when television writing didn't have to do super accurate research on things like Black Magick, witches, etc., in order to incorporate them into a major network show. Thus, a lot of lore gets its wires crossed. That's fine for the era, but would no doubt be chased out of town today (ever read an article by one of the Occult practitioners who rally against Hereditary for the allowances the film makes with Paimon?). "Sanguinarium" is a pretty cool episode that takes Mulder and Scully through a world that is equal parts plastic surgery and black magick, and its bloody, a bit more gorey than I would have expected, and fun. Plus, Ben Horne. Always a win.
**
Playlist:
Antemasque - Eponymous
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Mainstream
Porridge Radio - Every Bad (pre-release singles)
Porridge Radio - Rice, Pasta, and Other Fillers
20 Watt Tombstone - Wisco Disco
Algiers - There is No Year
The Great Old Ones - Cosmscism
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Ulver - Nattens Madrigal
Ulver - Teachings in Silence
A couple of night ago in the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago, some dear friends hosted a party in mine and K's honor. During this event, I saw a youtube clip that, well, dropped my jaw.
The context, besides liquor, was that Mr. Celentano is quite an interesting fellow when you read about him; he is credited as having introduced Rock n Roll to Italy. All my friend Amy told me as this song began was, to quote Celentano's wikipedia page, "...was written to mimic the way English sounds to non-English speakers despite being almost entirely nonsense."
Sold.
I love everything about this, especially the colors and, um, the fit of Celentano's pants. From someone who was born over half a decade after the 60s ended, this is as much my broad stroke impression of that era as "Prisencolinensinainciusol" is a broad stroke of English. Reminds me a bit of an Italian, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," although I can't quite put my finger on why that is.
**
If you've followed these pages for the last few years, you know I'm a fan of Kristen Gorlitz's Relationship/Horror comic The Empties. The new Kickstarter just went up a few days ago for the final, collected volume of the book. Support it if you can - this is a fantastic indie comic, and something I think will eventually make a killer movie.
**
NCBD:
A typically light week, although I find myself in the mood to read some comics. I may pick something up on Kindle, depending what's on sale:
**
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave (Cassette)
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Boards of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country EP
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
Metatron Omega - Evangelikon
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy
Edu Comelles and Rafa Ramos Sania - Botanica De Balcon
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hits
Slayer - Live Undead
Testament - The Gathering
The Great Old Ones - Cosmicism
**
Card of the day:
You spend a couple of days off laying out a perfectly functioning brain and emotional state, then you return to work and someone puts two blades straight through everything you worked so hard to shore up.
I wanted to post this a few days ago, but with the continued irregularity of my schedule, I've got all kinds of cool stuff piling up. Anyway, By the River is yet another fantastic offering from forthcoming New Man, New Songs, Same Shit Vol. #1, which is out March 27th on Napalm Records. Pre-order HERE.
**
I recently purchased a Kindle compendium of H.P. Lovecraft's works. It's coming in handy on our short stint to Chicago, where we surprised the hell out of my folks for their 50th Anniversary. The book I'm currently reading back home in LaLaLand is still Chuck Wendig's Wanderers - it's awesome, it's just hefty and my time has been erratic - but as an over 700 page hardcover, there was NO way that was coming with me on the trip. Also, my time in my hometown is usually pretty full, so I didn't really expect to have a lot of reading time. So, I've been picking away at re-reads of a few quintessential Lovecraft stories.
First up was The Call of Cthulhu. I re-read this one every couple of years, and I still believe it is both Lovecraft's best writing and my favorite of his works. I've probably said it here before, but the opening paragraph always leaves me in awe:
The remainder of the story is always a joy to read, as it more or less bears out this first paragraph, bringing the reader into events that begin mundane but develop into terror of a truly cosmic proportion.
Next is The Dunwich Horror, which it'd been quite some time since I'd last read. I wanted to re-read this now that Richard Stanley has announced it as his next Lovecraft adaptation in what hopefully will end of a trilogy.
**
Playlist:
Slayer - Live Undead
Myrkur - M
Also my cousin, my friend Amy and my friend Joe all turned me on to a lot of random music that will no doubt be incorporated into my playlists over the next several days. The Babies, Porridge Radio, Gene, Cornershop, and Lloyd Cole, to name a few.
I love that the resurgence of Folk Horror has grown out of and subsequently helped perpetuate a return of Folk sentiment in other areas of culture, particularly music. Myrkur's Sophomore release M made my "Best of" list back in 2015, but I've not followed her since. That sometimes happens with Best of lists - albums make an impact when they're released, but the time and place of that impact may fade or transfer as the moment disintegrates, giving way to all the other new music that I'm constantly finding. Anyway, I stumbled across this new single this morning, and immediately remembered why I dug Myrkur so much.
You can pre-order the new Myrkur album, Folkesange, HERE. It drops March 20th on Relapse Records.
Speaking of Folk-ish Female musicians, how about a double-header? A new Hillary Woods dropped a few short moments ago, and it fits in nicely along Myrkur, further illustrating this Folk-flavored resurgence.
Ms. Woods' new album, Birthmarks, drops one week before the Myrkur on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.
**
New episode of The Horror Vision is up! This episode, we watch and react to Jon Wright's delightful Grabbers, an Irish monster movie with a drunken twist that I personally loved.
Other topics include but are not limited to: AHS, Shudder's The Marshes, Osgood Perkins' Gretel and Hansel, the premiere of Netflix's Locke and Key, and Vault Comics' The Plot and Black Stars Above, two horror comics getting seemingly NO attention. Both are awesome.
Also available on Apple, Stitcher, and Google Play.
**
Between work and having a few days off with my buddy Dave to hit two of the three LALA Land Mr. Bungle reunion shows, I haven't posted much of late, and I realized yesterday that I forgot to log the most recent episode of The X-Files I watched for Mr. Brown's list. Let's remedy that, because it was a good one: Season Four, Episode Two.
This is the one, folks. This is the episode that legendarily aired once and was never re-run on Network TV. I never saw it back in the day, or rather I think I saw the final few moments on a VHS recording a friend made, but I never had the context for those final images. Regardless, this one is really F'ed up. Home is violent, gross, filled with disturbing sexual imagery and concepts, and, maybe worst of all for Normal 90s America, just plain weird. After finally seeing it, I will say that if you strip all the hype/legend away, I'd say it's one of the best episodes of the show I've seen so far. Great writing, directing, acting, everything. The lighting in the farmhouse of ill repute is spectacular, and although the whole sordid mess owes a little to Tobe Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it really stands on its own two legs as a great piece of serial television, regardless of the era.
**
Playlist:
sElf - Gizmodgery
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Boy Harsher - Careful
Anthrax - Among the Living
Antrax - Stomp 442
Corrosion of Conformity - Animosity
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
Testament - The Gathering
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Deja Vu
sElf - Super Fake Nice EP
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Myrkur - M
Slayer - Live Undead
Slayer - Decade of Aggression
Edu Comelles and Rafa Ramos Sania - Botanica De Balcon
Last week was a much-needed respite for me. My good friend Dave was out, and we bounced between hanging out at home watching movies and taking in two of the three Mr. Bungle Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny shows at LaLa Land's Fonda Theatre (one of my favorite West Coast venues). We drank a ton of great beer (me), and artisanal Gin (him), and generally just acted like two friends who don't see each other nearly enough and welcomed the chance to hang out and act foolish. And as usual when I see Dave, certain songs/groups followed us wherever we go. One of those songs was Michael McDonald's What a Fool Believes. McDonald had a bad rep for about a decade and a half, mostly thanks to a certain early 00s comedy, but whatever you feel about him and his music, he's a great song writer. This is the pinnacle of truth to that statement, but of course, Matt Mahafey makes everything better than it already was.
Especially with toy piano.
**
Congratulations Joker. I haven't seen Parasite yet, but I was glad to see Todd Phillips' masterpiece clean up - including Hildur Guonadottir receiving best score. I'm still not thrilled about this one having a sequel on the horizon, but when you're film grosses over a billion dollars, well, that's inevitable.
Speaking of Joaquin Phoenix, one of the movies I watched while Dave was visiting was Lynne Ramsay's 2017 You Were Never Really Here. Not what I expected, and deeply affecting. I really enjoyed this one, despite subject matter that would normally make me cringe. Ramsay knows how to handle the intensely disturbing pockets of our world just right, and seeing this has me considering watching 2011 We Need To Talk About Kevin, a film I have completely avoided for eight years despite all the accolades, because, well, I'm a wimp and everything I've always heard about this one makes me think it will burrow way too deep beneath my skin.
**
Five episodes into Netflix's Locke and Key and I'm digging it quite a bit. Quite a few of my friends are considerably more invested in the comic than I - I finally read the series this past December/January - and most of them have reservations. So far though, I'm enjoying it, even if it is a little more "CW" than it should be.
It's really interesting to see how Mike Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House and its success have affected titles that pre-date it in other forms, specifically here Locke and Key. The show definitely has a similar feel, and that's no accident. Flanagan's show was an unmitigated smash, and stands as one more example of why the man has become such a stalwart in the Horror genre.
**
Playlist - pretty much all thrash of late, thanks to those Bungle shows:
SOD - Speak Spanish or Die
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Testament - The Gathering
Anthrax - Among the Living
Me and That Man - Songs of Life and Death
Slayer - Reign in Blood
**
Card of the day:
Fertility and the idea of creating something new; propagation. Fits exactly with an insight I had into a stalled project from last year, which I may spend some time outlining soon.
I've been pretty well obsessed with Chris Isaak's 1989 album Heart Shaped World of late, and "Kings of the Highway" is the major impetus for that. This song is so fucking haunted it's unbelievable. For a song I'm fairly certain I never heard upon its release - I would have been thirteen, and while I knew and loved "Wicked Game" as it drifted from radios and tv alike that year, I didn't go any deeper than that - the soft, airy guitar, minor chord inflections, and perfectly reverberated drum kit creates a sonic space that, in my head, summons so many sense memories of my life at the time that it's as close to time travel as I've come. This goes beyond nostalgia; this is something else, and it's tied into how a scrawny Midwest metalhead kid came into contact and fell in love with David Lynch later that same year. Maybe these reveries of the past are firing off, careening backward through the time stream and colliding with my younger version, effectively priming me to be in the right place at the right time, that fateful Sunday night when I wandered into the living room and plopped on the sofa across from my Dad, only to get slowly engulfed in what he was already watching - ABC Sunday night movie, the two-hour pilot of David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks.
Whether that's massive hyperbole or not, one thing is for sure. I'm not gonna talk about Judy.
**
Speaking of Peaks, here's a head scratcher Mr. Brown brought to my attention recently. CBS recently stopped the 26-year, independently run Twin Peaks Fest. The plan, apparently, is for an official Fest to start up this spring, held in all places, Graceland.
Yes. That's right. Graceland.
Now, at first this just strikes me as all kinds of sad and bizarre. The sad doesn't alleviate the more I think on it, but the Tennessee part eventually turned on a little light bulb. If you've kept up with anything that's happened online with Twin Peaks over the last few months, there was a flurry of activity back in early October that suggests there may be more Peaks coming (read the article HERE), and while it's all conjecture, what if some element of the next chapter takes places in Graceland?
At this point, only the Owls - and probably Carl Rodd - know for sure.
**
NCBD: I had a handful of items to pick up, and with my pull slowly being split between The Comic Bug and my DwC co-host Mike Wellman's new Atomic Basement shop in the LBC, I've been behind. Here's what I landed in the last week:
Black Stars Above has now replaced the in-hiatus Criminal (see below) as the most bang for my buck every month. The story continues to unfold in a creepy, confounding way, and this third issue incorporated about six pages of prose. No idea where this is going, but it also occurs to me we have a Lone Wolf and Cub-like scenario similar to what Disney did recently with The Mandalorian, except replace Baby Yoda with what I'm kinda thinking of as Baby N'yarlohotep.
Going back and re-reading all of this currently Criminal "Cruel Summer" arc in anticipation of this final issue, I have to say, Brubaker and Phillips may have topped themselves. This one is Grand, capital "G" intended.
A new book in Joe Hill's Hill House imprint at DC, I had to bite back my aversion to monthly big two books when I saw A) Kelley Jones is the artist on Daphne Byrne, and B) there were no snickers ads in the book. Not really many ads at all (still more than there should be for a book that sports a $4.99 cover price). So far, I'm hooked.
Gideon Falls is as fascinating as it is perplexing, and with the conclusion of this fourth volume, I intend to go back and do a serious, deep-dive re-read before the new arc arrives in May.
TMNT continues it's fracturing of the traditional mores and paradigms of the TMNT universe, and it's just as good as it's ever been.
And with that, we have no more Trees on the horizon for some time. Sad face emoji.
**
Wednesday, February 5th my good friend Dave flew out for an extended weekend of not one but two of the three Mr. Bungle 'reunion' shows happening here in LaLaLand. The show is, exactly as the remaining members advertised in advance, a full-on thrash show, so I wasn't expecting to hear anything other than their Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny demo - re-worked by Dunn, Spruance, and Patton with the help of Anthrax's Scott Ian and Fantomas/Slayer's Dave Lombardo. This first show was great despite the fact that for a large part of the show, all I could hear was Lombardo's drum kit, and I'm looking forward to tonight's, hoping there will be some covers or surprises exclusive to each night. The highlight of Wednesday's show for me were never-before-played Eracist, and Speak Spanish or Die, a re-worked version of the title track from SOD's 1985 debut album.
That's the entire set on youtube, however, I've dropped you in at the aforementioned cover song.
**
The first 'teaser' from the next AHS dropped recently. I must say, if Season 10 is even half as good as Season 9, I will be happy.
It feels a little early for this to have teasers for this one, and I haven't looked around online for synopsis, but this looks like a very high concept season.
**
Playlist:
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Chris Isaak - Eponymous
The Great Old Ones - Cosmicism
Testament - Night of the Witch (pre-release single)
20 Watt Tombstone - Wisco Disco
Cash Audio - The Orange Sessions
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead - X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
Simon Bonney - Past, Present, Future
Zonal - Wrecked
Mol - Jord
Steely Dan - Aja
Billy Joel - The Stranger
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Zombi - Shape Shift
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
Boy Harsher - Careful
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
Me and That Man - Songs of Love and Death
Faith No More - King for a Day
**
Card:
Sevens follow me these days. Even in the Major Arcana, I'm never far from Netzach. There's a little lesson about this card, that you shouldn't confuse the armor you use to face the world as your real self. I'm not sure how that relates exactly, but it's good to contemplate that from time to time.
Let's trace a chain of events so that I can better explain my current musical obsession.
My good friend and collaborator Jonathan Grimm messaged me recently telling me he'd been hired by an awesome band to do a design. A day or two later, I see that the band, Wisconsin's 20 Watt Tombstone, had released an absolutely killer limited edition baseball tee featuring Grimm's design.
The next day at work, where I can often do my most concentrated listening of the day on headphones, I swung over to the band's page on Apple Music and loaded up their 2015 record Wisco Disco.
Immediate love. I listened to the album on repeat all day.
Here's the thing; it's not just that this is an awesome two-piece band. These guys have such a thick, dirty sound that it recalls music long ago ingrained in my blood. Back in the mid-to-late 90s, Mr. Brown, Sonny, Joe Grez, and I - basically the core of Schlitz Family Robinson - used to hang out at Chicago's Empty Bottle a lot, and we took quite a liking to two-piece Touch and Go Records band Cash Money that played there often. We started to kind of follow them around to other venues when they'd play as well, often opening for other Touch and Go bands. But Cash Money - later Cash Audio because of a bullshit lawsuit by the shitty rap label - stands as one of my all-time favorite live bands. John Humphrey and Scott Gimpino had a sound that is so unbelievably similar to 20 Watt Tombstone, that I can't help but feel like I've known 20 Watt a helluva lot longer than I have. Their sound is in my blood. And I don't mean to say I think there's any imitation going on; this is a natural progression of how two guys can set up and play dirty ass blues rock just fine without anyone else in the band. The Gretsch both Humphrys and 20 Watt Frontman/Guitarist Tom Jordan play has a lot to do with the sound, as does the slide, and the rough hewn blues-on-delta-rock vocals. I could go on, but I'd rather just shut my mouth and urge you to go check these guys out on their website and bandcamp, they are a fantastic band in their own right, and come from a lineage of blues/metal/fuzz icons.
**
This past Friday, K and I went to the theatre to see Osgood Perkins' new film Gretel and Hansel. I'll say right off the bat, I was very surprised to see this one getting such a wide release, and despite the fact that I am not a fan of Perkins' previous film, Blackcoat's Daughter (aka February), there was no way I wasn't going to support this one in a major chain.
So what did I think of Gretel and Hansel? All the acting is fantastic, it's a very pretty film, and I love the soundtrack. However, the soundtrack largely does not fit the movie. Synth-based music over old world settings play at being anachronistic, but in this case at least, I just don't think it worked. In fact, there were a few other elements that seemed to tease at the idea that Perkins sees this film as inhabiting an anachronistic space similar to, say, David Robert Mitchell's It Follows. Mitchell's film pulls it off in a very strange way; Perkins' film, in my opinion, does not. It's just too half-hearted and feels thrown in after the fact, as if the other elements that made me wonder - a few snippets of colloquialisms in Gretel's dialogue, or the coffee cup the Witch serves her from in one scene - were thrown in simply to try and justify the synth music. There's no doubt that the film, like BlackCoat's Daughter, is shot beautifully, and at least one scene is enhanced by that synth music, but as good as that scene is, it takes away from the overall film, and should have been removed or scored differently. Kill your darlings, dude.
Oh, but it was also really cool to see the old Orion Pictures logo come up at the start of the film. Not sure if that's being brought back, or if I'm just unobservant and it's been around since back in the day, but it feels like we haven't seen it in at least fifteen years if not longer.
All in all, I'd definitely say that, while I had some gripes, Gretel and Hansel deserves your support in the cinema, it just might leave you feeling 'meh.' Then again, I am largely alone in my disdain for Blackcoat's - I simply cannot reconcile the red herring that conceals the twist at the end; it's only accomplished by cheating - so who knows, everyone may very well love this one as well.
**
Playlist:
Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
David Bowie - Heroes
20 Watt Tombstone - Wisco Disco
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
The Misfits - Static Age
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead - X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
Clark - Daniel Isn't Real OST
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Greg Dulli - Pantomina (pre-release single)
Greg Dulli - It Falls Apart (pre-release single)
Me and That Man - Songs of Love and Death
Zonal - Wrecked
Mol - Jord
K and I had a marvelous weekend celebrating our four-year anniversary, now and I have a truncated week at work this week as my buddy Dave is coming out and we're seeing two of the three Mr. Bungle shows (*excited*), so I'm digging back into work on Shadowplay and I've begun the first steps preparing the book I will be releasing this year, what I consider the first successful novel I ever wrote, back in 2008.
It's been a minute since I checked in with The Black Lips. "Rumbler" is definitely not where I'm at mentally, but it is awesome nonetheless, and something I'd imagine I'll have in regular rotation before too long. New album, The Black Lips Sing in a World That's Falling Apart is out now on Fire Records, and you can order a copy HERE.
**
Finally had the occasion to watch David Lynch's What Did Jack Do? on Netflix. Wow, easily one of the weirder, more self-indulgent pieces from my favorite director, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I've been accused of being a "Lynch Apologist" before and I guess that's not wrong. But the man is filled with happiness and optimism, while still being capable of creating some of the most dark and baffling art, that it makes me infinitely happy just to see his face. What Did Jack Do? was no exception.
Here's a nice addendum to the movie. The song Jack performs, "The Flame of Love," is being released on vinyl by Sacred Bones. You can pre-order it HERE. I'm sitting this one out on vinyl - I'm not really a completist for everything Lynch has done (though pretty close), but this will probably end up a bizarre piece of memorabilia.
**
Playlist :
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Various Artists - The Void OST
Chris Issac - Heart Shaped World
The Black Lips - Sing in a World That's Falling Apart
Man, this was a blow. I don't know Sean Reinert's catalogue like some of my friends do, but from the moment I first heard this track on Cynic's 1993's debut Focus, I was floored. This was one of the first 'death metal' bands whose vocals didn't put me off, and also, whereas I normally didn't 'listen' to the drums on records like this, with Reinhert, at times that was all I could listen to.
**
Holy smokes! Over at Brooklyn Vegan, Andrew Sacher made my day by posting the news that 90s MetalCore group Deadguy appear to be reuniting. This is one show I will not miss live if they come through LaLa Land! Waaaay back in 1995, when Deadguy's first and only album Fixation On a Coworker came out on Victory Records, I happened to be a writer for southside Chicago music mag Subculture, and this album was sent to me for review. I loved it, and have loved it ever since, and now can't wait to see what more Deadly might have in store for us.
Read Sacher's full article HERE, and below is my favorite song off the album:
**
Playlist:
M83 - Knight + Heart OST
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Me and That Man - Songs of
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars
**
Card:
Motion, movement. Flow. Getting back into a stable, regular writing routine has worked wonders. Sometimes things stop your momentum cold, that's life. You just have to start back up again. It's all a Wheel.
There's something to be said for artists who, whether they plan to or not, end up defining a part of our time, whether it's a year, or half-year, or period of weeks and/or months. Me and That Man is having that affect on me now, here at the start of the 20s. Part of it is because I didn't hear about them until the back half of 2019, and part of it is the pace at which they have been releasing singles off their upcoming 2020 album, Same Shit Volume One, due out March 27th on Napalm Records (Pre-order HERE). The steady, every-couple-of-weeks has helped keep them on my mind, in my ears, and a continual OST to these cold and dreary days of the first quarter (LaLa Land's 'cold and dreary' might not be as severe as a lot of other places, but everything is relative). This new track is simple, catchy, and has a certain stoic dirge quality that, once again, shows me Nergal is a huge Nick Cave fan. Not a band thing by any means.
**
The similarities between the procedural CDC elements of Chuck Wendig's novel Wanderers and the current 'outbreak' of the Coronavirus are frightening to say the least. Benji Ray's complex relationship with the job of disease identification/control/treatment already inspired me to pull Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys off the shelf in anticipation of a re-watch, reality and the daily news - which I largely shy away from these days other than BBC - have made me think twice about adding to the 'paranoia fire' that seems to lay at the heart of the modern world at the moment.
**
Playlist:
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Night Shop - In the Break
Black Pumas - Eponymous
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land
Mol - Jord
**
Card:
A direct reference to the power and stability my recent writing sessions have given my made-up world of Shadow Play. As if to further underline that interpretation, a second card leapt from the pile as I pulled the first off the top of the deck:
Second time this week for XXI The Universe, and why not? I'm currently dealing with massive philosophical concepts, finding fun and interesting ways to instill a version of my own cosmology in this work that is coming to define my life (at least until it's over and I move on).
One of the creepiest songs Godflesh did, and that's saying something.
I've fallen in love with Love and Hate in Dub all over again. This one is never far from my speakers, but many times, my listens are not album-length, as they're confined to the car, or at work where a longer album can be interrupted fairly easy. Lately however, I've been sequestered in the back-half of this one, and the final song, this "remix" of 'Gift from Heaven', off 1996's equally brilliant album Songs of Love and Hate. There's always been something so dark and mysterious about Godflesh, and although I love pretty much everything JKB has done in his career - especially under the Godflesh moniker - possibly the stuff that stays with me the most is the creepy, atmospheric, 'a boiler room in hell' stuff.
**
One episode into the new Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix and goddamn, I don't care how camp or teenage this show goes at time, the sets, costumes, and overall tone is fantastic, and again, the blasphemy is joy-inducing.
**
Playlist:
Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Mol - Jord
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
Zonal - Wrecked
David Lynch and Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
**
Card:
A new journey? That's always the initial interpretation that springs to mind with this one, however I'm inclined at the moment, while reflecting on a fairly successful week of writing sessions, to err on the side of a completely different outlook. One of "new," i.e. a new direction that's becoming apparent within the major arc of the second and third books. It's not radically different than what I originally had planned, but it's more nuanced for sure. In fact, the entire epic is really coming to life in a far more robust way than I'd anticipated. Well, that's not entirely true; I've always known this would be huge, but I guess you can't see it until you're in it, so to speak. And brother, I am IN it now.
Another album I'm looking forward to that drops on Friday, March 13th! Live Dungen - they've been off my radar for a while, but I've loved these guys since I saw them live in Minneapolis back in the early 00s, and if this track is any indication, this will be a fantastic representation of the band live.
**
Yesterday I returned to work, whatever viral plague that had laid me low the last few days having retreated to a mostly manageable position on the outskirts of my physicality. It took it's tool though, and when I returned home, I flopped down unceremoniously in bed and planned to through on a flick, knowing I'd probably doze. However, I threw on was Jeremy Rush's Wheelman.
Awesome flick, and Frank Grillo absolutely kills it in the lead. Also, always great to see Garret Dillahunt. Needless to say, I did not nap. Totally worth it, though.
**
Playlist:
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Patchouli Blue
Zonal - Wrecked
Godflesh - Hymns
Godflesh - Love and Hate in Dub
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
93MillionMilesFromTheSun - Towards the Light
Zombi - Shape Shift
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
It's been five years since we had new music from Bohren and Der Club of Gore. Five long years. And while I'm still largely hung up on Sunset Mission, I can't wait for this one. My life needs to feel more like a David Lynch movie, and, well, I can't think of any better way to accomplish that. Other than introducing myself to my neighbor whose husband is missing an ear, but I'm pretty sure this is the better route.
**
It's been a minute since I logged any X-Files episodes, but over the last few days I've been sick and had some time to slip back into that world. First, I have to say, although I was never a huge fan of this show during its original airing - I briefly became interested in the 'Mythology' episodes and made a few half-assed attempts to keep up with those - I am very much enjoying diving into The X-Files now. A large part of that isn't just the quality of the show, which, while still very much "TV," feels very nostalgic for me. This is indirectly the case with Twin Peaks as well; any TV from this early 90s era that I can connect with - which is rare - brings with it a sense memory of that time in my life. The feel of the house I grew up in, the elastic quality of nighttime spent in our living room, the large picture windows pulling the night inside, the many large trees that surrounded our small home always on guard just outside. The suburb I grew up in is essentially a township carved out of a forest preserve, and my memories of growing up there definitely play into watching this show the same way it does the original Peaks; the screen tends to blend with the environment, or in my current, mostly treeless home in LaLa Land, it blends with the memory of those trees and how they were a daily part of my life.
But I digress. It's time once again for...
Season Two, Episode Twenty, "Humbug" - Freakshow! While these days, the whole freak show setting feels overdone to me - I've continued to avoid the titular AHS season due to that feeling - this is another episode with Twin Peaks alumni, and a definite ploy to the at-the-time interest in all things "alternative." Not a bad thing; it works here, and even though Jim Rose and crew feel a little shoe-horned in (remember they opened Lollapalooza for a while in this era), the always marvelous Vincent Schiavelli evens everything out. This guy is such a great character actor, and his distinct visage and more than worthy chops are something I grew up with seeing in a lot of disparate places, from Night Court to Buckaroo Bonzai, so that he owns a little piece of my heart, for all time.
Season Three, Episode Four, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - A great little episode co-starring Peter Boyle as a reluctant, socially confused psychic; an old man who has lived with a bizarre gift he doesn't want, and what happens when that brings him into a murder investigation. In his notes on this episode, Brown pitched it as, "Creepy," and he was not wrong. I really dug this one.
Season Three, Episode Twenty, "Jose Chung's From Outerspace" - An episode I had seen at least once before, and one that made a mark on me back in the day due to its strangely comedic tone. Really out there at times, to the point it seems to threaten the integrity of the mythology the show is building. But then it doesn't, and everything ends up working perfectly within the confines of what the show has already set up.
Zombi - Shape Shift
Lovecraft and Sabrina Spellman - Straight to Hell
INXS - Kick
Card:
Of particular interest to me here, today, is the image of the Crab, which here symbolizes the aggressive and/or healing attributes of Water, or Emotion. This plays directly into something I wrote into the outline for Book Three yesterday, and I think I'll read this as suggesting an attempt to work in a bit of symbolism in an otherwise literal scene.
