Thrice Great

The Smug Brothers

Speaking of the Smug Brothers...

Trailer: The Houses October Built

The Houses October Built (2014) Trailer #1 - Celebrity bloopers here

I watched this the other day and wasn't quite sure how to take it. Watched it again tonight and was way more interested. I know very little about this flick, and that's usually the way I like to go into these things. There's enough in this trailer to make me think it's worth checking out. Cuz yeah, it's almost October, the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Gang of Four - I Love a Man in Uniform (Re-recorded)

Speaking of Post-Punk...

I'll admit, I had some trouble getting into Gang of Four initially. That's Entertainment sprawls a bit, and as much as I loved their sound upon hearing it I never really liked the way that sound was represented by their recordings. Slowly though I got used to it, mostly through the incredibly original musicianship going on with all instruments involved (the guitar on Tourist! Oh my...) but the rift with the recording kind of prevented me from digging any deeper.

At some point a man I respect very much, Dayton, Ohio's Larry Evans - of The Smug Brothers - told me in a beer-fueled conversation that I was doing myself a great disservice not digging deeper into Gang of Four's catalog. Almost at the same time Mr. Brown sent me a copy of the retrospective A Brief History of the 20th Century, which featured the original version of the above song, I Love a Man in Uniform. I gravitated back to this particular track again and again and it made me curious...

Sometime later I wanted to return the favor to Mr. Brown so on one of the occasions that he visited us we hit up a local record store and I picked up a copy of Return the Gift for him. At the time I had no idea it was an album of re-recordings of classic GOF songs. We popped that disc into the stereo and lo and behold here it was! The Gang of Four record I had been waiting for. All those classic records are fine - there's still several I need to explore, but the recording on these new versions are just fantastic; crisp, clear and very much what these guys deserve to sound like. Hard to imagine a band doing this and having it make such a stronger impression - maybe this is mostly because I don't have the history with these guys that other do, but here's the original version of the song - you tell me if the new one doesn't trump it by about 1000%.

Liars - Brats Official Video

How did I miss the video to my favorite track off 2012's WIXIW? These guys have always treated the video component to their music super experimentally and it's made them unlike any other band I know. Go back and watch their video for 2010's Scissors off the Sisterworld album, or this years Mess on a Mission. If this intrigues you and you've never seen it, the album that got me into Liars was Drum's Not Dead; not only is it a fantastic record that is 100% peerless, but there are three video versions of the album that come with the disc and every one of them employs groundbreaking and surrealistic takes on the band's music that completely enhance the experience of the music.

Eagulls - Live Performance on KEXP

Okay, I hate to use genre monikers, especially when you get into sub genres, as I'm about to, however there are a few of these that I find extremely helpful and on the nose when discussing similarities between certain bands/scenes. One is Post-Punk. I know, usually you slap "post" on anything and it immediately sounds pretentious. That's fine; pretension is sometimes warranted and sometimes good. ESPECIALLY when discussing Post-Punk groups such as Gang of Four, Bauhaus, Savages, Wire, The Teardrop Explodes and Magazine. There's been quite a resurgence in Post-Punk these last couple of years and Eagulls definitely fits into it. Expect more of these guys here; like I said earlier, I am in hardcore love with this record.

Eagulls - Soulless Youth

I am absolutely in LOVE with Eagulls debut 2014 record. Oh my. As Mr. Brown said after sending this my way, they'd make a great double bill with Savages.

Grant Morrison & Frazer Irving's Annihilator...

...is the topic of discussion in this week's Thee Comic Column over there on Joup. Published monthly by Legendary Comics (that's the comics arm of Legendary Pictures, the fine folks who endeared themselves to me forever by releasing The Dark Knight Rises and Pacific Rim) Annihilator's first issue sets up what I'm thinking is going to be one hell of a unique tale by mind-fuck master Grant Morrison, with beautiful art by Frazer Irving, who did some of the creepiest art I've ever seen in both Morrison's Klarion the Witch Boy and the penultimate arc of his Batman and Robin series.

Drinking with Comics Half-Pint

New Half-Pint entry into our 'micro-series' where we discuss Eric Powell's The Goon, his collaboration with John Carpenter on the Big Trouble In Little China sequel book from BOOM! Studios and, er, social ills and how pouring beer on yourself can help them...?

Trailer: David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars

This looks nuts, but in a very restrained, new Cronenberg kind of way. Which is good.

My Suggestions for the Top 5 Graphic Novels Everyone Should Read

This week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup is the 100th edition! To celebrate I've compiled this list - it's not necessarily a list of my favorite five - though it's probably close - but the suggestions I would give to anyone - my mom, your sister, Sister Ray, Billy Joel - whoever on how to break in to comics. Because honestly, I feel these books transcend whatever anyone could expect of them and could all shatter whatever misconceptions keep people from giving the comics/GN's a fair shake.

Scratch Acid - Live Set in Austin, 1985

The sound quality isn't spectacular but it's from 19-freakin'-85 so what could we expect, eh? Mr. Brown sent this to me some time ago and I'm (criminally) just getting around to watching it now. Yow is in good form, although he doesn't seem quite as insane as his Lizard days. I should add I never had the chance to see Scratch Acid live but became a fan after reverse engineering from The Jesus Lizard. This is pure musical archeology here; for the record, as it were.

Serengeti - The Whip

Okay, I kind of feel as though I'm doing this song a disservice pulling it out of the context of Serengeti's breathtaking 2011 record Family and Friends but I just have to. If the album's a masterpiece - which it most assuredly is - then this song is the pinnacle of that masterpiece; the facet in which every theme reaches a harmonic crescendo of skill and emotion that vibrates at an occult frequency that affects the listener - or at least this listener - in a way that feels as though it confirms and encapsulates life and all its highs and lows in their entirety. This track makes me straight up cry.

Good show Serengeti. Once, long ago I was foolishly afraid you would always be Kenny Dennis, the "Dennehy" guy. You're not that guy anymore; by my count your just about the only person making rap music left that is still worth a damn and Family and Friends is a hip hop masterpiece that completely transforms and transcends the genre.
..................

I interviewed Serengeti back in 2010. You can find both parts to that here and here.

Drinking w/ Comics #12

Had a great time doing this one! Jessica was truly gracious, the Lost Coast Brewery Downtown Brown has replaced every other Brown Ale as my favorite and the Rick Remender drinking game is officially retired!

Stray Toasters!

Bill Sienkiewicz's Stray Toasters is the topic of discussion in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup. This book freaked me out as a kid and, honesty, still freaks me out to this day.

Body Count Covers ST's Institutionalized - and it's Awesome!

My friend Missi just told me about this. I laughed out loud.

Lake Street Dive

Wow. My friend Michael just showed me this. Reminded of Erika Wennerstrom from Heartless Bastards, Otis Redding and yeah, a little Amy Winehouse.

The Raveonettes have a new album out!

Funny, just the other day I found myself thinking that there had to be a new Raveonettes on the way - they tend to release a record a year. And lo and behold, PE'AHI came out July 22nd. This is the first video - and yes, be careful of the strobe. It didn't affect me the way the NIN Came Back Haunted video by David Lynch did, but just be careful.

The Afghan Whigs Cover The Police

And it is freakin' awesome! Listen to those intro drums - like a fist coming out of a bouquet of flowers. Dulli owns on this track - his vocals match the guitars, the vulnerability laced with menace and a hint of defeat. And such a crystal clear mix - focus on the hi hat, let it ride up on top of the mix in your perception. It's, well, it's magic.

8 Bit Twin Peaks Credit Sequence

Do I even have to say how awesome this is?

Special thanks to Ali Troubadour for sending me this. Thank you Ali!!! And to the folks at Filthy Frackers, I say well done!

Pulp Karaoke Contest Winner is... 9?

This is awesome. Via Brooklyn Vegan. I'll admit I checked out after about half the song and really just had to go put on the actual Pulp track, but this is worth some attention if for no other reason than it's really a bit surreal.

Drinking with Comics Issue #11

Drinking with Comics issue #11 is up! Our guests are Aspen Comics' Vince Hernandez and Siya Oum, talking about there new books - respectively - Damsels in Excess and LOLA XOXO, as well as SDCC 2014, variant covers, gas masks and, um, beer.

Of course.

Dark Day: RIP Robin Williams

I just received a text message from my good friend Dave - it brought with it terrible news. No, I did not know Robin Williams, I didn't even see all his movies. I always felt like I was as selective in watching what he is as he was apparently un-selective in choosing what to star in. That's not a judgement - if doing some of the work that he did that seems, to me, subpar it enabled Mr. Williams to take some of the gargantuan roles that he left tattooed across my memory, than more power. If you know me well enough to have ever really talked movies with me you know doubt know that often touted Mr. Williams as both one of the greatest dramatic actors of our time as well as one of the funniest.

Now he's gone and we'll never get another World's Greatest Dad, The Fisher King or Dead Poets Society.

Fuck.

Along with the powerhouses listed above some of my favorites - big or small - were Insomnia, Death to Smoochy, One Hour Photo, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Dead Again.

KITTYGATO

I saw this band tonight at the release party for Guns A'Blazin! #2. Great set.

Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance

I first heard this about a year and a half ago via Heavenisanincubator. I fell in love immediately. However this was at a time when I was so steeped in finding new music that an awful lot of bands I discovered ended up getting pushed off the plate by a constantly expanding wave of newer stuff. And newer stuff. And newer stuff...

Well, this popped up into my head again today, I spent about fifteen minutes searching through the incubator and once again found Feuerbahn's bandcamp.

Of particular note, I think, it track four, "Triumphwagen". Kind of Seventeen Seconds era Cure meets Fen. Kind'a.

Surreal Sermons - Laird Barron Interview

I have not had time to listen to this yet but I can't wait. I'm in the process of re-reading Laird's book Occultation and I'm planning on making something of a character map of it and his other books. There's a lot of overlap and I thought it'd be fun to kind of diagram out who recurs and what connections lay beneath the surface. I'd never heard Jeremy Maddux's Surreal Sermons before but am now planning on making it one of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis. Here's the page, give it a listen and if you dig there's plenty more episodes.

Rob Zombie Talks 31

One more I'm referencing from Bloody Disgusting today. Interesting news on the new Zombie movie 31, including a description that sounds awesome! Remember Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men, Arcade's Murder World? Well...

Go here to read about more about 31, watch and listen to a whole lot more information on the project and, if it suits your fancy, back it!

New Opeth Track

Via the mighty Bloody Disgusting, a new track from the forthcoming Pale Communion LP. I have not loved some of the music Opeth has made since they have become a quasi prog band circa 2006' Ghost Reveries. However, I recognize that this is entirely based on the fact that Mikael Akerfeldt wants to keep the project ever moving forward. The band still makes - quality wise - some of the greatest metal music in history and simply because of the pure beautiful majesty of Blackwater Park they always get the benefit of the doubt and the utmost respect from me no matter how I take to their newer material.

Guardians of the Galaxy...

...is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column on Joup. However, this is not a review of the film, so much as an exploration of what this movie means to comics and how time and technology have, specifically in the case of Sci Fi, affected the way we interpret Story.

Kevin Smith's Tusk Gets a Trailer

And it looks better than I imagined. Oh I do love Michael Parks...

One thing of note here is that during Smith's two episode stint on Bret Easton Ellis' podcast back around the beginning of the year the two talked about the Stanley Kubrick conspiracy doc Room 237 and Smith told Ellis that the idea of Kubrick's visual symmetry in his films was something he actively took away from the documentary and applied to Tusk. I dare say you really see it in this trailer.

Finally! Joe Hill's HORNS Has a Trailer

Get More: 

Movie Trailers, Celebrity News

Horns was the first book by Joe Hill I read, back when I worked for the book store and stumbled into an advanced reader copy. It was great and it led me to read his first novel, Heart Shaped Box which was even better. Since then I routinely keep up with everything the mad does. Just based on the source material alone this movie should be fantastic, and although I don't always love what director Alexander Aja does, he has a lot of talent.

Drinking with Comics Issue #10

Issue #10 of Drinking with Comics just went up! A return to basics. Of particular note is the sketch that leads things off. Had a blast doing this one!

Old News: Watch the Constantine Pilot

This isn't breaking news or anything, I've only just gotten around to finding the time to watch the Constantine pilot and thought I'd share it in case there are any other stragglers out there like me.

Suburban Gothic Trailer

Via Bloody Disgusting. This looks fantastic. The tone the lighting alone conveys is worth the price of admission - or VOD if it doesn't make it into wide release. And really, you had me at "Ray Wise" but John Waters doing a cameo? FAN-tastic!

RIP Tommy Ramone

RIP Tommy Ramone, last original member. NOW it truly is the end of the century, adjust your calendars accordingly.

Cocksure - Klusterfuck Kulture

Recently my good friend Chris turned me on to the fact that Chris Connelly has a new band with Jason Novak of Acuman Nation. The band is called Cocksure and their debut EP Klusterfuck Kulture is available for a mere $3.99 at the bandcamp linked above. This is easily my most listened to new music of the year, and I've only had the thing for about a week (Thanks again Chris!). It's fantastic - a perfect synthesis of everything great about old school industrial but without feeling like a throwback or re-hashed ground. I spent the week in the cryo-lab with this spinning over and over on my ipod, six, seven listens in a row, each time finding something new to love about it.

I read this somewhere however now I can't find the confirmation, but I believe the full album is apparently due next month in August on, of all labels... WAX TRAX! Now that is fucking awesome. Both Touch and Go and Wax Trax pressing new music for the first time in years this year? Awesome.

CORRECTION: The single was on Wax Trax, the album, out August 12th, can be pre-ordered now on Metropolis Records.
.........
* I love most incarnations of Ministry but Connelly-era is my favorite

Nick Cave and 20,000 Days on Earth

image courtesy of meltcomics.com

Last night my wife and I attended the premiere of the new film 20,000 Days on Earth. It is a fictional documentary about Mr. Cave, and probably my favorite film of 2014 (definitely up until this point it is). Read about it on Joup here, where I've also posted Mr. Cave and his Bad Seed's masterpiece And No More Shall We Part as my entry into this week's The Joup Friday Album column.

Drinking with Comics Issue #9

PodCrashed by Chris Gore! Recasting the Avengers, Batffleck, Saranac White IPA and the worst comic book cover gimmicks of the 1990's (Chromium). Plus, a whole lot more!

Crystal Castles - Year of Silence

Working on the novel to this right now. LOVE Crystal Castles II. The other two records... not so much.

Horror and Kelley Jones' The Hammer...

image courtesy of readingbypublight.blogspot.com

... are the topics of discussion in this week's Thee Comic Column on Joup.

HOLY!!! NEW FAITH NO MORE

One of two new Faith No More songs performed earlier at Hyde Park in London on July 4th, 2014. Thanks to Bloody Disgusting for posting about this. And thanks to youtube user Felipe Faúndez for having the best audio on one of these I've found yet. 

Don't know the name of this song yet. I've seen a bunch of guesstimates but that's napster-era 
crap. The band will name it when they're ready to name it.

Big Black - Bad Penny

Big Black's Songs About Fucking came out in 1987. Ministry's Twitch came out in 1986 and their follow-up The Land of Rape and Honey came out in 1988. I'm a massive Ministry fan, especially their late 80's period, so this is not meant to be a critical or derogative observation. My theory has always been that the change in Ministry's sound during this era, while not directly obvious in terms of sonic texture, was definitely influenced by Big Black's drum machine-driven sound. Bad Penny is possibly my favorite song on an album where I adore every track.

Ti West's The Sacrament

image courtesy of wikipedia.org

It has definitely been hard for me to find time to post things here, so allow me to play a bit of catch-up on this wonderful three-day weekend.

I first encountered Ti West when my good friend Dennis showed me The Roost. Now, The Roost isn't an amazing film, but it's good and fun and it really left a lasting impression on me. Treated so that it plays on your screen as though you're watching it late at night in 1986 on a UHF station The Roost is creepy and visually fuzzy and features a wrap-around that seals the deal in my opinion. After that it was a very long wait from the time Mr. West's follow-up The House of the Devil was announced to the time it was actually released. I'd had something like two or three years to stoke my anticipation for The House of the Devil and when it finally played at the one theatre in Los Angeles that it did I took my friend Michael and we were both blown away. This is still one of favorite horror films of all time and I wrote an open letter to Mr. West on my then-stomping ground CHUD.com telling him how much I appreciated someone making a movie of this calibre - let's face it, at that time horror was in perhaps the worst era it'd been in for a while, with a lot of promising films stalled or fighting for distribution (ie Satan Hates You, off the top of my head) and a lot of shite being bandied about by major studios.

I went back and brushed up on the one Ti West film I'd missed, Trigger Man, and found it to be an exercise in efficient indie film making. Trigger Man is a very low-budget but very effective film about very real horror - several friends on a hunting trip in Upstate New York are pinned down by a sniper and slowly picked off one by one. Not as immersive as The House of the Devil - but then not a lot is - Trigger Man stayed with me for a long time after I watched it and served as a nice appetizer as I awaited West's next film, The Innkeepers.

Again, I don't love The Innkeepers as much as I do THOD, but as an entry into the timeline of a director I've long thought will evolve into one of the best of this era it's an important piece. The words slow burn, usually associated with Ti West's films, is appropriate here, however in The Innkeepers Mr. West plays with the idea and consistency of the film's tone in a way that, while it doesn't completely land, made the film interesting and enjoyable in unexpected if uneven ways and no doubt served to strengthen his overall approach/style.

West's entry into the original V/H/S is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen in a cinema.

Now, The Sacrament. Holy cow, this film just blew me away.

I don't want to say too much, but The Sacrament had me from the opening text. The modern media framework for the story is a fantastic storytelling device and the story itself is both fascinating and horrifying, especially as it takes its cues from a real-life incident. And the acting is top notch. Joe Swanberg and AJ Bowen are becoming must-watch players in the indie realm for me. Gene Jones deserves to at the very least be nominated for an oscar for his performance and Kentucker Audley's portrayal of the character Patrick is, at his end, so chillingly realistic as to engrain his name in my psyche for all time.

The Sacrament is on VOD right now and it's worth every fucking penny. My suggestion? A pair of good headphones to make the immersion complete.

New Shellac Record Dude Incredibe...

...will be released on Touch and Go Records on September, 16th. You can pre-order the record, which is a paltry $21 for 180 gram vinyl that also includes a CD, on Touch and Go's site HERE.

I am extremely excited for this record. It's been seven years since Shellac's last record, Excellent Italian Greyhound was released. Dude Incredible was, as all Shellac records are, recorded in full analog glory. If you should know anything about guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini it's that he's an analog loyalist. If you go back to one of Mr. Albini's earlier bands, Big Black, specifically their 1987 seminal record Songs About Fucking you'll find that the back cover harbors the famous quote, "The Future Belongs to the Analog Loyalists, Fuck Digital". Mr. Albini is known to record on two inch tape (glory!) and of course he takes it one step further. While there are a handful of bands and artists that still use the analog recording medium, far fewer of those few actually take it a step further and master their records in the analog realm:

"Audio quality is paramount, as always, with Shellac. The LP was mastered entirely in the analog domain, using the DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) process. The LPs are being manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, CA using their HQ-180 system. The pressings are 180 gram audiophile quality."

-quoted from the above-linked pre-order page at Touch and Go Records.com

La Volt Streaming Live In Moments!

image courtesy of the band's Facebook

WORLD TIMES for La Volt Live Stream but if you don't catch it, it will be archived! 
LIVE FEED LINK: http://gigity.tv/event/80452/
10PM EASTERN
9PM CENTRAL
8PM MOUNTAIN
7PM PACIFIC 
12 NOON (Saturday) - Melbourne, AUS... See More

Pacific Rim 2 Announced!

YES! I absolutely loved the first one.

Drinking with Comics Issue #8

The issue that puts the "drinking" back in Drinking with Comics! Special guests Robin Thorsen of The Guild and Havenhurst creator Tanya Bjork!

White Zombie - Blur the Technicolor

I tend to listen to a lot of metal at work. It helps keep me moving and awake - important when you wake up at 4:30AM. Recently I dug out White Zombie's Astro-Creep:2000 and put it on my iPod. I've probably played fifty times since, sometimes multiple times in a row.

In my opinion, while Zombie's solo career has always been mediocre at best, this record and especially this particular song still sound as damn good today as they did what? Twenty years ago when they were released?

That wah guitar sound is out of this world.

Savages - Fucker

New Fucker/Dream Baby Dream 7"! See what you miss when you drop out for a few? I had no idea this was released back in May. Gonna order this now (HERE), as Savage's 2013 debut Silence Yourself is still one of my 'go-to' records on a weekly or even sometimes daily basis. Dark, jagged British post-punk.

Wait a minute, didn't even realize it at first. The Dream Baby Dream is a cover of the Suicide song! Awesome.

Frank Booth's What's That Smell

What's That Smell" by mindexpands

How have I never known this existed? Many great and hallowed thanks to my good friend Ray for turning me on to this.