Eagulls Cover Stone Roses

Mr. Brown forwarded this to me a while ago but I've been so busy and admittedly pretty flighty in my down time as a result so I'm just getting around to this now. Eagulls are fantastic, and although I'm not the world's biggest Stone Roses fan I am a fan, particularly of this song. So it's a match made in heaven really.

Beneath the Panels #3: Nameless and the Tree of Life

Beneath the Panels #3 is up on Joup. It continues my attempt to interpret and catalogue the Occult underpinnings of Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham's new comic Nameless. For this third installment dealing with issue #1 we get into some serious Qabalah, Tarot and media-tampering. This one's a doozy and it prompted a bit of an 'episode' last night after I ate a quarter slice of a pizza made with THC oil, tripped pretty hard and met what my brain at the time chose to dress in an Enochian persona but was apparently a fairly dark aspect of my own psyche. Whewwww... glad that's over, and here's another reminder to myself NOT to eat pot.

Sunn 0))) + Ulver

This has been out for some time, and I've dabbled a bit with it before, however it was not until this morning that I really gave Terrestrials a good, solid listen. After uneasy dreams of London I found myself awake at a ridiculous hour - ridiculous when faced with the reality that Saturday is one of the only two days I have to sleep in - and in the hazy, marine-layered morning air I found this collaboration between Sunn 0))) and atmospheric black metal liaison Ulver the perfect soundtrack to quietly sipping a pot of strong, black coffee and re-reading key sections of Richard Kieckhefer's Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century while researching the next chapter of my Beneath the Panels: Nameless series.

"... the rites contained in this compendium illustrate strikingly the links between magical practice and orthodox liturgy. The analogy I will use is that of a tapestry whose dislay side implies a reverse side; so too, a society that ascribes a high degree of power to ritual and its users will invite the development of unofficial and transgressive ritual, related in form to its official counterpart, however sharply it may differ in its uses."

-Richard Kieckhefer, page 3 of the introduction.

Love My Way - Cruel Black Dove

I lost track of Cruel Black Dove somewhere around 2012 but was recently reminded to look them back up - GREAT band. Their cover of The Psychedelic Furs' Love My Way was the first track I heard from them and, of course, when a band does such a fantastic job covering an 80s song this iconic, well, they get my attention. The Full Powers E.P. is well worth the $5 or so if you can download it from here (the link appears a bit wonky) and you can find a bunch of free downloads- including this cover - here on the band's website.

Black Mirror

This is seriously one of the most riveting 48 minutes of drama I have ever seen. All six episodes of the British Black Mirror are fabulous, but this first one really smacks you across the nose and announces the fact that the creators are NOT messing around when it comes to extrapolating the dark side of the tech curve. Black Mirror does for technology today what The Twilight Zone did for Nuclear proliferation in the 50s and 60s.

Black Sabbath live 1970

My good friend John Bickness sent this to me recently. I think there was footage from this on a VHS I had back in the day, The Black Sabbath Story or something like that. War Pigs with the original lyrics, pre-fringe John "Ozzy" Osbourne.

Ruleth thou dost!!!

Spring Trailer (Via Bloody Disgusting)

Romantic Lovecraftian Horror? I'm in.

Beneath the Panels #2: Nameless

Beginning with the second entry into this limited Beneath the Panels column I've begun in order to trace the Occult influences/ideas Grant Morrison has built into his new series Nameless I've moved the column over to Joup. The second installment which deals heavily with the Enochian undertones in this first issue just went up.

Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham's Nameless: Beneath the Panels #1

As I said in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column over on Joup, I've read Nameless #1 twice so far. Between reads I began digging around on the internet for some of the concepts Grant Morrison builds into the code that underlies the story begun in the book, and as such I've started to piece together some of what I think may be the initial ideas at work beneath the panels, so to speak.

Nameless #1 begins with a narrated series of atrocities taking place across the globe. The paneling on these first couple of pages is unique and, I'm betting, charged with some degree of subliminal meaning. After drawing them out and pondering them as distinct images by their own right I'm left with one observation and one theory.

The images, especially the first and third, bear strong resemblances to letters from the Hebrew alphabet, which is steeped in occult science and often used in the creation of 'spells'. However, despite the resemblance, after consulting a Hebrew dictionary I found myself unable to draw any direct comparisons. Stumped I thought about this some more and eventually came to a different conclusion about the shapes:

They are part of an elaborate sigil. If you are unfamiliar with sigil Magick - a concept Morrison has talked quite at length - go here and take the author's crash course.

Okay, moving out of the design aspect and into some of the direct references Morrison makes in Nameless #1, the first glaring one is during the aforementioned narrated atrocities on the very first page, we get another sigil-like image and four words:

The image is later defined by one of the characters as "the door to the anti-verse, the Gate of Az". If you google Gate of Az the search engine makes the assumption that you're abbreviating Arizona. However, if you do not search the phrase as you enter it, allowing instead the engine to use its intuitive functions you get three things, the aforementioned Arizona result, followed to more likely possibilities:

Gate of Azeroth

Gate of Hell, Azerbaijan

Here I began with the latter result, as it was something I was unfamiliar with. In a nutshell, there is a deposit of natural gas in the country of Turkmenistan known as the "Gate of Hell".

Once you reach the end of the issue you find there is definitely a parallel to be drawn in terms of what we find out this image represents in actual, physical terms to the story in Nameless. However, that's not it. Let's go back to the other search result and explore that a bit, shall we?

At first glance I misread Azeroth as Azathoth*. That is not the case; Azeroth is a setting in the World of Warcraft game. I don't think that has anything to do with what we're dealing with here. However, because Grant Morrison is as much a utilizer of pop culture in his Magick as he is occult code, this may be the point. It is not too much of a jump to consider that WoW's Azeroth derived its name from Azathoth, a character from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu cycle. Morrison has utilized some of Lovecraft's lore before, and there is an entire area of Magickal practice that treats Lovecraft's mythos as something of an operating system for ritual. In his story The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kadath, Lovecraft describes him as the following:

[O]utside the ordered universe [is] that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes

I have always drawn an indirect comparison between Azathoth and Choronzon, a demon that traces its origins back to Elizabethian magician/scholars John Dee and Edward Kelley. Choronzon's entry in Watkin's Dictionary of Magic is as follows, and when juxtaposed with the definition for Azathoth above fully illustrates the reasons for my theory:

In Enochian magic, the demon of chaos and guardian of the Abyss. Aleister Crowley described Choronzon as "the first and deadliest of all the powers of evil". This point notwithstanding, Crowley invoked Choronzon while experimenting with the so-called 30 Aethyrs in a magical ritual on the top of an Algerian mountain in December 1909.

There is a great visual recreation of Crowley's ritual with Victor Neuburg in Alan Moore and JH Williams, III's Promethea, specifically issue #20, where the characters are on a multiple issue long trek through the spheres of the Kabbalhistic Tree of Life and fall through Daath, the abyss. Here they encounter Choronzon and are torn to pieces. Bringing this back around to Nameless #1, the Abyss - or Daath - could be the "anti-verse" discussed in the final pages, where we learn the harbinger of this Gate of Az is an asteroid on a collision course with Earth and thus inevitably going to destroy it, or rip it to pieces, the same way Choronzon or Azathoth obliterate those who encounter them in their respective mythological contexts.

Okay, I've barely even scratched the surface of this first issue but this is proving to be a much bigger project than I originally thought it would be. I'll continue with more decoding of Nameless #1 in a few days, in the meantime here are a few links for further study of the ideas I've discussed thus far:

Choronzon

Tree of Life

Promethea #20: The Stars are but Thistles summary/annotations

...........

* Another possibility, although less likely, is Astaroth. A quick referral to The Goetia and you will find the following definition for Astaroth:

The twenty-ninth Spirit is Astaroth. He is a Mighty, Strong Duke, and appeareth in the Form of an hurtful Angel riding on an Infernal Beast like a Dragon, and carrying in his right hand a Viper. Thou must in no wise let him approach unto thee, lest he do thee damage by his Noisome Breath. Wherefore the Magician must hld the Magical Ring near his face, and that will defend him. He giveth true answers of things Past, Present and to Come, and can discover all Secrets. He will declare wittingly how the Spirits fell, if desired, and the reason of his own fall. He can make men wonderfully knowing in all Liberal Sciences. He ruleth 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this, which wear thou as a Lamen before thee, or else he will not appear nor yet obey thee, etc.  

Protomartyr - Full Performance on Seattle's KEXP - Includes NEW Song!

I am completely obsessed with this band right now. And I'm talking obsessed in a way I haven't been obsessed with any band in a while. Under Color of Official Right is an unbelievable record - HIGHEST possible recommendation to at least check it out.

The songs:

The first, second and forth songs are all from the record mentioned above, which came out last year and which I've posted here before. The third song is, as you'll hear singer Joe Casey tell it, a new song. Kudos to KEXP for pimping this band so hard.

Tom Vek - Sherman (Animals in the Jungle)

Current musical addiction thanks to my good friend Amy. I've listened to this probably fifty times in the last week and have pretty much become a huge Tom Vek fan. The entire album this track appears on, 2014's "Luck" is start-to-finish awesome, and I highly recommend it.

Goodbye Marvel Universe Hello... Battleworld?

Although I recently decided to stop reading Marvel Comics on a monthly basis in an effort to grant my wallet a little bit of a break without having to stop supporting all the great creator-owned and indie books on the market, I'm still a Marvel fan and this week's big news really didn't leave me anything but optimistic. Well, except for the Battleworld moniker. My complete thoughts on the coming apocalypse in the MCU are the contents of this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

Blut Aus Nord Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

I completely forgot this came out!

Although I've been unable to track down a copy of the first chapter of Blut Aus Nord's Memoria Vetusta, the second one is neck and neck with the band's masterpiece The Work Which Transforms God as not only my favorite BAN album but my favorite black metal record of all time. Where TWWTG is a journey away from convention and an amazing example of what metal can be, Memoria Vetusta II, subtitled Dialogue with the Stars, is the height of perfection when it comes to the classic, regal black metal the likes of which was often hinted at and attempted by too many stalwart death metal bands of the 90s to mention. This third and apparently final chapter of the Memoria Vetusta cycle is a continuation in spirit and a stunning example of Vindsval's continued mastery of tone and technique, not too mention his wonderfully poignant disregard for what anyone else in the scene is doing/saying/making.

If you dig it buy it, and if you know where I can find a copy of the gatefold vinyl (sold out in their label Debemur-morti's online merch shop and virtually nonexistent anywhere else) please leave a comment and let me know!

Ant Man Trailer!

My Top Ten Albums of 2014

Tuneyards's Nikki-Nack is #1and Protomartyr and Jenny Lewis make an appearance. Read the full list over on Joup! Then go over and read Tommy's from Heaven is an Incubator, also on Joup!

Soundgarden - HIV Baby

Mr. Brown recently sent me the Soundgarden rarities Echo of Miles. Honestly, Soundgarden was one of my favorite bands back in the day and those albums, Badmotorfinger, Super Unknown and Down on the Upside will always be among my favorites of the 90s. When I get in the mood I usually tear into them for days. When King Animal came out two years ago I was resistant, mostly due to that awful song that wound up on The Avengers ST. Eventually I came around - I dig King Animal for what it is but I don't think I'll ever stop believing that the only real reason Soundgarden are back together is money. Anyway, regardless of all of that, Echo of Miles, a 50-song set spread over three discs, is fantastic! All truly rarities and mostly from back in the time when they were a fully functioning band, and an awesome one at that. This track, previously the B-Side to my all-time favorite SG track Room A Thousand Years Wide, is one standout on a fifty song set of, honestly, a lot of standouts.

And is it me, or did an awful lot of bands have songs about HIV or crack babies in the 90s? Perhaps someone needs to update this concept with "Bath salts baby" for the youth of today, hm?

ProtoMartyr - Take Away Show

At first I didn't get that this 7 minute and some odd second video is exactly what it says it is: a take away show. It looked like a video where the band was outdoors, sans electricity and pretending to play their instruments to pre-recorded music. Watch the entire thing though and you see mini amps on the bass and guitar players, you'll notice the drummer working - beautifully I might add - with one drum, and you'll see singer Joe Casey carrying his inflections through onto a very unique performance that just further assures me that, only about two weeks after first discovering Protomartyr they are one of the bands I am most excited about right now.

You Wouldn't Like Thom Yorke When He's Angry...

Holy cow, new music avalanche (more likely I've just had a moment to actually pay attention): Thom Yorke put a track from his new record on Bandcamp. and it's a "name your price" for download folks.

New Erase Errata!

Holy cow, new Erase Errata! It's been quite some time...

I love when a band I really like disappears and kinda fades from my radar - well, I don't love it at first - and then resurfaces unexpectedly with a track this great. It's like finding a sonic $10 in your pocket! New album out in January, though I couldn't find any exact release date or label.

Richard Starkings's Elephantmen...

... is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup!

The Pogues - Fairytale of New York live 1988

Best Christmas song ever.

PO'Boy Special - Barely Gettin' By e.p.

Full disclosure: the guitar player/chief songwriter of Po'Boy Special is one of my oldest, dearest friends. But you know, I go so far back with Anthony Barraco that in a way, in the passage of daily life and how it congeals unexpectedly into block of years, decades and then finally, a life, without ever really granting any quarter, well, the Anthony that recorded this record only really overlaps with the Anthony I know a little bit. When we do manage to see each other - once a year at best - we're in catch up, so it wasn't until this past October that I was ever able to relax my trip home a bit and actually see this band - a relatively new band for Anthony - in an intimate practice setting. Not a performance, but a practice, foibles and all. It was amazing, and now that I hear the recorded version of the band I'm really just left speechless. Anthony's not only quite an amazing songwriter but he engineered this at his home on the south side.

Awesome.

The Barely Gettin' By e.p. is available for FREE download on Po'Boy's bandcamp HERE.

You should hear these guys live if you get a chance - they play Double Door, HOB and Hard Rock Cafe on a somewhat consistent basis that seems to only be ramping up. Their cover of Roy Hawkins's The Thrill Is Gone - probably best known performed by, for now, BB King - is just unbelievable.

RIP Joe Cocker

Much respect to Joe Cocker and his passing, even though I will admit, I've never really considered myself a fan. This song though... this song has a special place in my heart. In my single days, when I was a bartender on the South Side of Chicago, I worked with a waitress that will one day be a character in a novel I have half-finished somewhere on my hard drive. She used to like to go out and party after work, and whenever this song came on, well... certain things would follow.

Thanks Joe. Have a blast on the other side.

Protomartyr

Holy cow, this band is fantastic!

Avengers: Age of Ultron Sneak Peak

Via Bloody Disgusting. I am very much looking forward to the second movie in the Avengers franchise. I watched the initial teaser Marvel released in October and was floored - it was everything I wanted it to be and so much more. However subsequently I have sworn off any trailers that follow. I mean, the teaser was almost three minutes long, for fook's sake; I detest the amount of exposure the current trend of five minute trailers gives. My favorite thing is to go into a movie - especially one as anticipated as this - as blind as possible. So what got me to watch this?

Elizabeth Olsen.

Ms. Olsen has been one of my favorite actresses since Martha Marcy May Marlene. She has spectacular talent.

But that's enough! No more until May 1st.

John Constantine Short Film "Soul Play" - NBC learn from this!

This wonderful short film by Waking Dream Studio's is the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup!

Wytches

... the new series by Scott Snyder and Jock. In the words of my co-host on Drinking with Comics, Mike Wellman, "It's creepy as all hell," and it's the topic on tap in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

The Babadook

This is playing at Cinefamily this weekend. Gonna try to make it, but my folks are in and I'm thinking this is not something they are going to want to see. Me on the other hand... bring on the Babadook! Looks wicked.

The Neighbourhood - #icanteven

New music from The Neighbourhood! Now where's that second album guys???

Oh yeah, Speaking of FNM...

Right before I left work in West LA today I checked twitter. I'd seen this cryptic Gimp message the other day on FNM's feed and wondered. Well, I almost ran from work and drove straight up to Amoeba Music because they announced a 5-song in store performance today at 6:00 PM. Then I happened to read a little further and realized it was the SF Amoeba location, a mere 8-hour drive north for me and one that I would NEVER hope to make. So if you're a FNM fan and you're in SF, you might wanna head on down. And if you go, Please Please Please hit me back with a comment and let me know what 5 songs they played.

Only about six months until the album...

Faith No More - Motherfucker

I'm admittedly waaaay late on this - I listened to it about a week ago. I've heard a lot of naysayers but honestly, A) I'm not about to judge one of my all-time favorite band's come back on one song and B) I happen to really like the track. It doesn't sound like any other FNM to me and despite how others feel about it, I really dig RB doing the vox on the verses. Ever since seeing them at the Palladium back in 2010, when Roddy's presence on backing vocals and inter-song dialogue was a lot more present than previous I've been interested in hearing more from him. Not that I want to take any vocal duties away from Patton, because he is the man of course, but you know, I think there's room to expand the dynamic even further. I want a FNM album unlike anything I've heard before and this my fellow FNM-friends, is a good start in my book!

Southern Bastards...

...and how it blew my mind this week is the topic of conversation this week in Thee Comic Column.

Zorcom!

While reading the 1983 Storm and Illyana: Magik series this morning I came across a ton of great, nostalgia-inducing ads, as one always does when reading comics from the 80s. This particular one really grabbed my imagination. I don't remember it, don't remember anyone that ever had a Zorcom spaceship, wanted one of even talked about it. But still, this was a thing! To the point that if you look at the copyright at the bottom of the page there (which will most likely be impossible to see even if you can stretch this image) its copyrighted to Zorcom Industries.

There was a place, maybe in an office building, renting a suite, named Zorcom Enterprises, Inc.! Only in the 80s!*

Anyway, there's also an ad for sending away to receive the Zorcom Adventure tapes. After a little snooping around online I found that someone indeed had uploaded this to soundcloud. Truly EVERYTHING is online somewhere, thus furthering my theory that the internet is now actually the physical manifestation of the human collective unconscious.

Enjoy the Zorcom audio series! And if you finish part one and have to know how it all turns out, go to capeofdracula's page on soundcloud, give 'em a follow and dig in for more laser-studded adventures!

................

*Okay, probably not - most likely this was run out of someone's garage, but still!

TV On the Radio - Happy Idiot

Wow. Can't wait for the new TVOTR rekkid!

Starry Eyes Trailer

I'd seen the name of this film recently somewhere but it was completely in passing. Then, a few moments ago my wife asked me to check and see if PLaNETS had announced any upcoming shows (she really wants me to see them) and when I went to their FB page I saw a blurb about Starry Eyes and how part of it was apparently filmed in the PLaNETS band house. As soon as I saw the trailer I was in. CREEE-PEEEY!!!

Worm is Green

I discovered this band five or so years ago and then they promptly fell off my radar before I ever had a chance to hear more than just the two songs I found online at the time. I'm remedying that now.

Red Fang - Crows in Swine

I know nothing about Red Fang other than my friend Josh digs them so they must be great. This video completely backs up that assertion.

PLaNETS - Scared Coyote

The day after I left for Chicago my wife went to Silver Lake's The Satellite (formerly Spaceland, where we saw one of the best shows ever in A Place to Bury Strangers) to see a band from LA that we love named Battle Tapes. As she tells it, she arrived before the first band went on, took a table on the floor and ordered a GlenLivet on the rocks and proceeded to be blown away by each band (Chastity Belt & Megafauna also played). PLaNETS however, stole the show, and again, based on how much I love the album and what she's told me about the performance, I can't wait to see this group live.

Psychic Teens Score Dementia AKA The Daughter of Horror

I don't really know much about Psychic Teens, but a friend pointed this out to me the other day and Although I've thus far only seen a small part of it, it looks and sounds amazing.

The Afghan Whigs - Lost in the Woods

I'm sure everyone that would click on this has already seen it; I'm behind. Very behind. I spent two and a half weeks running around the Midwest, played a show in Dayton with a total douche and then returned to LALAland just in time to hit eleven days straight at work AND manage my wife's business during my home hours. Simply put, there's but little to no time to consume any content other than what I could fit on an iPod or in a CD wallet. That said, I found some marvelous stuff that I will get to throwing down here shortly. First though, there's a handful of things that filtered in during the trip via various outlets and I wanted to add them here, not for any real informative reasons since, again, this is essentially old news at this point, but because I actually keep this blog more for myself than anyone else - so yes, I'm essentially at least 51% writing to myself at this moment.

"Can I play with madness...?"

The Forest Children - A Demon at My Door

New video for the first single off one of my band's new records, Angels Weep While the Devil Sings.

Formerly known as Darkness Brings the Cold.

Woman In Black 2 Trailer

The Woman In Black 2: Angel of Death (2014) U.S. Trailer - Click here for another funny movie.

The first Woman In Black was a film that passed right by my radar for a few years until a very picky, old-school horror fan I work with lent it to me with 'highest possible recommendations'.

He wasn't wrong.

I haven't even had a chance to watch this trailer for the sequel yet, but just based on the strength of that first movie I'm looking forward to this one.

Avengers - Age of Ultron Teaser

Second time through this today, still have chills.

Tuneyards Live Performance on KEXP

Last night my cousin Charles treated me to seeing Tuneyards live at Chicago's wonderful Vic Theatre.

A) Amazing. At one point Merrill apologized for her use of the loop pedal that helps create the textures in the band's music. No need to apologize - half the beauty of seeing this band live is watching Merrill create these intricate vocal and percussive loops and then have everyone throw down on top of them.

The band for this tour is: Merrill Garbus - vocals, ukelele, drums, loops, percussion, synths; Nate Brenner - bass (and he is a marvelous bass player), synths, vocals; Abigail Nessen-Bengson - percussion, vocals; Jo Lampert - percussion, vocals; Dani Markham - drums, percussion, vocals. What these people do onstage is amazingly layered, intricate and beautiful.

B) I had not been to the Vic since maybe Tomahawk in the early aughts. LOVE that venue. Great sound.

Also: I'd be remiss if I didn't promote the charity that Tuneyards talked about last night: carrefourcollaborative.org. I donated a dollar, as it was Merrill's humble suggestion. Read about it and then it'd be cool if you did too.

New Primus!

From the forthcoming record Primus and the Chocolate Factory with Fungi Ensemble which I would not even know about if not for Mr. Brown, out 10/21.

Cloud Nothings - Full Set @ Pitchfork

Special thanks to my good friend Jacob for turning me onto these guys a couple years ago. Still haven't picked up their most recent record, but if it's half as good as that last one - which the little bit I've watched of this live set seems to suggest it is - then it's classic.

Video via Pitchfork.

Rimbaud Eyes - Dum Dum Girls

Currently in love with this record. Better late than never. Dum Dum Girls have hit their mark and from here on out I think we're in for some amazing music.

Drinking with Comics #14

Special guest Daniel Pickett, the Action Figure Insider and co-host of Geek Shall Inherit!

The Return of Rick Remender & Matteo Scalera's Black Science...

... is the topic of discussion this week in Thee Comic Column, over there on Joup!

Independence?

To my brothers and sisters in Scotland, all the wonderful people I've met there - no matter what you choose I wish you nothing but the best and stand with you in spirit, if not in person (for almost ten bloody years now!)

I'm having a flashback right at the moment, as about six months ago I read Sean-Paul Thomas' Cafe Independence, which takes place on the night of the historic vote.