Boards of Canada - Nothing is Real

Ain't that the truth. I'm not entirely sure where I go when this song comes on, but its both far, far away and more intimately close than most other songs inspire. The womb-like recreation of tactile sound has long been Boards of Canada's specialty, however 2014's Tomorrow's Harvest and this track in particular bring their strange musical nirvana ever closer to fruition. I listen to this a lot on airplanes.

Drinking w/ Comics Issue #24

About time, eh? Yes, Drinking with Comics has been on hiatus but we are back! Issue #24 is up and we are filming/streaming issue #25 tomorrow night 7:00 PM Pacific Time!

Topics of discussion in #24 include but definitely are not limited to: James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's brilliant Airboy, Marvel's 70s pulp fantasy throwback Weirdworld (in which some of the characters from Crystar the Crystal Warrior make an appearance), Harley Quinn and Power Girl fending off Vartox's advances, the sinking feeling the Juggaloker gives Shawn, how awesome Oscar Isaac is when NOT in Fox's terribly laughable Apocalypse make-up and a whole host of other stuff. All while we wet our whistle with Magic Hat Brewing's tasty Night of the Living Dead variety pack!

James Robinson and Greg Hinkle's AIRBOY

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

Morphinist: The Pessimist Sessions

Just discovered this band. Really cool, atmospheric stuff with no regard for genre constraints or image. It's all about tone and they have it in spades, especially here. Check out at about a minute and a half when the 80s horror synth kicks in. Beautiful.

If you dig them like I do, support them. Morphinist have a bandcamp where you can name your price for the full Pessimist Sessions album download.

Sexwitch

A couple of months ago I re-loaded Bat for Lashes debut album "Fur and Gold" on my iPod and have been listening to it quite steadily since. It is a fantastic album, full of dark nuance, emotion and really artistic, eclectic arrangements. This afternoon while writing I took a break from my normal soundtrack (Sinoa Caves's Beyond the Black Rainbow ST) and threw Fur and Gold on. This got me thinking and when I reached a stopping point I fired up the Google and decided to see what Natasha Khan has been up to. I'm well aware there are two Bat for Lashes record after F&G, I just haven't gotten around to them yet. Now I find Ms. Khan is the vocalist in a new collaboration with producer Dan Carey and group Toy. The new band is Sexwitch, Helelyos is the first track off the E.P. that comes out on 9/25 and is available for preorder through their site here.

I dig this and am pretty interested in hearing the rest of the record.

Cocksure - Razor Invader

AH! The new Cocksure came out a week ago today and I haven't been able to get it yet. I would have just pre-ordered it but I was traveling and thought I'd be able to finagle a grab on the go, however it just didn't work like that. The Ghost record was easy to come by last week - I walked into a bestbuy and walked out five minutes later with Meliora in hand. Cocksure's Corporate_Sting isn't the kind of record a bb would carry because, well frankly, I was kinda shocked they carry any music at all anymore. And there are NO record stores on the Southside of Chi town anymore (sheds a tear for Threshold Music).

Well, I'm back in LA and have a writing session in Hollywood tonight so you can bet your sweet behind I will be stopping at Amoeba. I simply can NOT wait any longer for the new one by Chris Connelly and Jason Novak!

Stream the new Ghost Record Meloria

If you haven't heard it yet this should help convince you of its majesty. If you dig it, buy it and help them 'take over the world'.

Rote Hexe

I haven't been able to shop for much music lately, let alone wander the isles of Amoeba and let something new and unexpected find me. I did that this evening and this fantastic experimental metal two-piece is what I came away with. Very, very good. Give a listen and please, if you dig, support them and Cricket Cemetery Records.

Goodnight Mommy

Sold. Completely F&*king sold.

Remember that Supergroup w/ Mike Patton, Tunde Adebimpe and Doseone?

The one we've been waiting for since about the time Peeping Tom came out?

It's here. Or at least the first single is. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for The Nevermen (sounds like a villain from Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol, doesn't it?)

Thanks to my Drinking with Comics co-host Mike Wellman for being the bearer or great news:

The band's soundcloud is here. There's no tracks available there yet though, so apparently it's exclusive right here on Consequence of Sound. Really great track with a very unique structure. Can't wait for the record!

Chelsea Wolfe - Carrion Flowers

I had totally missed the fact that Chelsea Wolfe has a new record on the horizon (shipping on or around August 1st!). There's a gaggle of tracks floating around from Abyss (great title) but this creepy ass video is the only sneak peak I want of Ms. Wolfe's new material until I can experience it as a whole when I sit down with some intoxicants and hit play by candle light when the actual Long Player lands.

Can't wait! Next stop, the Abyss!

Before Bane There was... The Bonecrusher!

What? All will be revealed in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over on Joup.

Protomartry Streaming Live on Youtube RIGHT NOW

Just started!

Bizarre Ghost Late Night TV Ad From Back in May

Holy cow! Following the link to the Loud Wire that I referenced in my previous "From the Pinnacle to the Pit" post but had not read completely until just now, I realize how much I've missed on the developments in this completely awesome and bizarre band. This aired on VH1 in late May, during a late-night broadcast of Caddy Shack.

What?

This is the kind of marketing that I absolutely love and will endear me to Ghost even more. If that's possible.

Read the Loud Wire article linked above for more deets.

Brand New Ghost Track: From The Pinnacle To The Pit

AWESOME! And, more so than on Circe, the other track to surface so far from forthcoming record Meliora (pre-order here), on From The Pinnacle to the Pit you can very much tell that we once again have a new Papa Emeritus (number III for those counting along).

The fact that Ghost have switched singers for each of their three records is just stunning to me. I'll admit it's going to be hard to beat Papa II, however if this track shows a bit of bite to the vocals and Circe shows his 'sweet', melodic side, I'm really going to love this record as much as the other two. After seeing the video for Circe it has really grown to be one of my favorite Ghost tracks.

Ghost - Circe Video

This video is awesome - it's amazing to me that Ghost can continue to display the sense of humor that they do and still maintain the insidious 70s satanic horror vibe they pull off so well. And if the song itself, which available for free download on their site, is any indication, the new record Meliora will be an even more epic step in this brilliant band's evolution.

New Protomartyr Track Why Does It Shake?

Pitchfork reports that The Agent Intellect, Protomartyr's follow-up to last year's brilliant Under Color Of Official Right will be released on October 9th via Hardly Art. Easily my most-anticipated album of the year before hearing this new track, which is so good I really just want to keep playing it over and over again but, you know, must preserve the purity of the album experience.

Maybe.

Star Wars - The Force Awakens

Wow. This has stunned me with the effect it has had on me. It's inspired a rather lengthy article which I'll link to on Joup in a day or two.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the article.

Windhand - Two Urns

Bad ass!

Mastodon Video - Asleep in the Deep

Via Bloody Disgusting. Mastodon's Once More 'Round the Sun made my top 10 records last year and continues to be an almost daily listen for me (often multiple iterations in a sitting). I was obviously very happy to see this pop up earlier today. Hit the bloody disgusting link above for some information about what you see.

Lower Dens - Escape From Evil

I've spent most of the day listening to this band for the first time. Their newest record, Escape From Evil, is a fantastic dark-pop trip into a neon urban underworld that at times really reminds me of the early Cocteau Twins stuff.  Check it out.

Brian Buccellato's Sons of the Devil...

..., cults and The Great Satanic Panic are the topic of discussion in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup!

Drinking w/ Comics #23

In which Mike Wellman and I talk about Chip Zdarky's new book Kaptara, the fact that Archie Comics has pretty much said, "Fuck it" and done another insane crossover book called... wait for it... Archie vs. Predator (AvP for the ironic class), Becky Cloonan, Andy Belanger and Leigh Loughridge's BRILLIANTLY creepy Southern Cross, Optic Nerve #14 and the Dark Horse, 1989 Predator mini series that definitley should have been used as the template for the 1990 Predator 2 which, let's face it, was terrible except for the Alien skull Danny "I can't act" Glover finds in the Predator's ship at the end.

All that and we drink Uinta Brewery's gorgeous Sum'r Ale, Ol' Burro's Favorable Stout and a few Fat Tires for good measure!

New High on Fire Streaming on NPR

Via Brooklyn Vegan. Good. I have some anger to release and this is just the band to help me do it.

Nekrogoblikon

How has this existed for three years and I have never heard of it? Well, thanks to Bloody Disgusting, who have the new Nekrogoblikon video up here I found this wonderful video. I didn't love it at first... and then I did.

Ash vs. Evil Dead teaser #2

I can NOT wait for this. After, what? Thirty freakin' years we're getting another chapter in Ash's life. That said, I'm a fan of BOTH Evil Dead timelines and I still really want another Fede Alvarez-directed movie with Mia.

Chicago by Night

From my friend Chuck. Man, this makes me homesick times twenty.

Screaming Females

Wow Bob Wow.

How I Fell in Love w/ Screaming Females

I am not a fan of the original artist who does this song, however I have a feeling with Screaming Females performing it, they could make me like just about anything.

I always forget about AV undercover until something like this pops back onto my radar, this time via Brooklyn Vegan.

Algiers - Black Enuch

Mr. Brown just sent me this video from Algiers's self-titled record that just came out today! They're on the mighty Matador and you can order the record on their website here. Or you can always go out and support the nearest brick-n-mortar record store in your area, if you have one. If you're anywhere near Long Beach like I am might I suggest the wonderful Fingerprints.

Quiet.

Last night at the taping/streaming of the new issue of Drinking w/ Comics I met Joey, the drummer for a band named Quiet. who hail from the Southbay. Great guy. In the midst of a languid morning of headache and music I managed to remember Quiet. has a bandcamp. I'm glad I did - these guys are great. Support some independent music and give yourself a powerful slap in the speakers at the same time. Given one word to describe Quiet.'s music I would say sonic, which should be enough to get some of you to pull the trigger and give them a spin.

New GHOST in August

And you can download the first track for free on their website right now! Head over to Heaven is an Incubator to listen to that track - named Cirice - now!

Wolf Moon

Type O Negative. One of my favorite bands of all time. Lead singer/bassist Peter Steele's death is one of only two rock n roll deaths from my era that actually affected me - the other being Layne Stayley's. I don't listen to Type O all the time - favorite or not their music affects me so strongly that I have to be in a very particular state of mind to fully revel in it. And that state of mind really only comes around two or three times a year - Spring and Autumn definitely and maybe once at some other point. And when it hits me, I go into that headspace and their music super hard.

I've been in that headspace recently, and ironically my friend Tommy has too because he posted about it in his awesome Joup column Endless Loop.

I've posted this track before - I have TONS of baggage associated with it. I'm posting it again but wanted to do a different version, namely something live that does it justice, like this version from the band's Symphony for the Devil video does.

Kitty LaRoar

LOVE this! One of those amazing serendipitous finds via networking on twitter. THIS is what social media is for. And there's a lot more great music on Ms. LaRoar's Soundcloud page.

Sadist Art Designs

Another rabbit hole Perturbator has sent me spiraling down. You know that awesome "Satan is a Computer"poster design that I posted along with the new album teaser? It was done by Sadist Art Designs. Intrigued I set out googling said Sadist and found that their website is filled with awesome stuff: poster designs for some very retro, 80s looking independent horror flicks, a Halloween nod and holy full circle - Sadist Art did a poster for Don't Move, the amazing horror short from Bloody Cuts Films that I posted last year.

Slick Moranis - Another Sleepless Night Perturbator Remix

I just can't seem to get enough Perturbator lately. This has sent me down several rabbit holes. Slick Moranis is one of those. Here's the original.

UPDATE:

Yeah, just linking to the original won't do. It's too damn awesome:

Twin Peaks Intro... Done with Paper!

Saw this on Bloodydisgusting earlier in the week. Very cool. The opening notes of this theme song always have a calming influence on me, and if I make it all the way through I usually get a little choked up from nostalgia.

New Perturbator Record Teaser

Man how I wish I'd gotten this sold-out poster from his bandcamp!

I caught sight of this a few weeks ago and promptly forgot about it - with constant access anywhere, anytime the internet has become something of a roiling sea to me, and I've essentially become the nautical disaster survivor, swimming from one piece of detritus to another, never looking back, always treading water. So much content I find slips through the cracks and disappears. While I write this I stumble to try and remember various tidbits or big announcements that I've encountered in the last few days and nothing comes up.

That's alright - news of a new Perturbator record on the way is more than enough to carry me through the day. Here's a taste.

Other Lives

I just discovered the group Other Lives via Mxdwn's Raymond Float and his twitter. I clicked a link, saw the word "phantasmagorical" and immediately fell in love with what I heard. This track reminds me of Calexico if they had a little more Bela Lugosi and a little less Robert Rodriguez (not a dis - I love Calexico). That's an analogy that only goes so far though; as I move through other material by the band I'm finding they are actually quite unlike anything else that I have heard before. Rituals, the band's new album, just came out on May 4th via Play It Again Sam, so I'm going to have to acquire a copy of that ASAP.

Cocteau Twins - Grail Overfloweth

From one of the darkest albums this side of The Cure's Pornography. Totally sounds like 80s Vertigo comics to me, probably because all those British Invasion creators were steeped in their Cocteau Twins.

Always Watching

I am fairly uninitiated in the Slender Man mythos, however I will admit to harboring a very remote interest in it for the last few years. Something about the idea that we have our first urban legend born on the internet really intrigues me, as does some of the imagery that tends to surround it. Any time I've attempted to research it however most of what I find online is very 'in-on-the-joke', biased and not informative at all, often being suffering from extremely poor, Junior High School level grammar/spelling/etc. The most un-biased and informative, no bullshit article I've found about the Slender Man to date. There's also a wiki devoted entirely to the legend, however it quickly becomes a rabbit hole, as there are leagues of internet jargon used therein that I have no frame of reference for and thus, end up spending an exorbitant amount of time on tangents.

As morbid as it is I will say my interest in the Slender Man jumped a bit more when about a year ago two twelve-year-old girls stabbed a third in order to appease Slender Man, who they believed had threatened them into doing the deed. The crime is atrocious, but what interests me here is the way fiction has bled over into reality and affected it. That is always worth taking note of because incidents like that wear down the walls between the worlds of fact and fiction and leave our world a little bit more susceptible to becoming... something else.



Last night my interest peaked a little. A bunch of us had gone to see David Lynch's Mulholland Drive at Cinespia (amazing!) and when we came out a flyer with the above image was under my friend Ray's windshield wiper. Intrigued I spent about an hour at the end of the night watching the first thirteen or so entries in the Marble Hornets series. I can't attest to quality of story yet because I'm not nearly far enough along, however I'm definitely still intrigued, more so that the creators apparently parlayed it into a feature length. Always Watching is playing for a week - starting this past Friday May 15th - and although I'll probably not have the chance to drive up to the one cinema that has it in LA, I'll definitely be watching for it to hit Netflix, the place where indie horror flix like this really seem to live the strongest these days.

New High on Fire!

Jesus Christ - what is this, Christmas? First a new Brand New, now new High on Fire? And while we can only chomp our nails and wait with bated breath for the announcement of the new album to follow Brand New's first track in six years you can pre-order the new High On Fire - titled Luminiferous - now! Or, you can wait and go to a local record shop and grab it June 23rd.

Also, I've seen HOF several times and I can't stress this enough: if you get the chance see them live. These are three men that, on stage, create a sound so enormous it's like an army of Orcs storming a castle.

Here's Matt Pike's explanation of the lyrics to this track:

"It's about aliens abducting people and manipulating our past, present and future. It's about the top of the pyramid, so to speak," Pike says. "And it's also about alien hybrids, and how we've been immersed amongst this culture of E.T.s for thousands of years, and how no one has woken up to it until recently."

FINALLY - New Song From Brand New

YESYESYES! Six years since Daisy and hopefully this will be followed by a new album very soon! Brand New - I miss you!

Scott Snyder and Jock's Wytches...

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

David Lynch Back on Twin Peaks!

Dear Twitter Friends, the rumors are not what they seem ..... It is !!! Happening again. #TwinPeaks returns on @SHO_Network

— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) May 16, 2015

... and all is right with the world.

True Detective Season 2- First Full Trailer?

Well, I thought the first full trailer was what dropped last month. At any rate, I'm breaking my 'don't watch more than one trailer rule' with this one. Just because.

#wegettheworldwedeserve

Rick and Morty Kill The Simpsons

LOVE this. Thanks be to Mr. Brown for making me a Rick and Morty fan, that first season is nuts. Second season begins in July.

Faith No More on the Tonight Show

Okay, I was trying very hard not to listen to any songs off of next Tuesdays' FNM record Sol Invictus but I'll admit I've slipped. Now, as of a few days ago the album is streaming in its entirety on NPR - I've managed to resist that because I've really been looking forward to making this a "Day it's released" record store trip to Fingerprints in Long Beach. Day of acquisitions aren't the easiest events to plan and pull off these days, what with the internet being our dread overlord and master, however I've always been one to cherish the experience of first hearing a new album by a band I love as a whole entity and not fragmented songs, so I sometimes have to fight pretty hard against the net and myself in this age of media frenzy. Spoilers, early releases and bootlegs wait around every corner of our increasingly virtual world. And because of this that fight for a perfect first listen has increasingly required me to do things that are sometimes baffling to others, i.e. driving around with QOTSA's ... Like Clockwork for almost a day without ever listening to it in the spring of 2013, or running from a room at work when the lead single off of NIN's Hesitation Marks dropped that same year. That said, when the first song off Faith's first album in 18 years dropped last November I couldn't help myself - I jumped on it right away. I mean, 18 years.

18 YEARS. Shessh.

Since Motherfucker though, I've tried to avoid all the subsequent tracks as they've surfaced, officially (Superhero) or unofficially (any of the live performances captured by concertgoers that have been appearing in varying degrees of quality for about the last year). Then a few weeks ago my co-host on Drinking with Comics Mike Wellman and I saw Faith at LA's Wiltern Theatre and afterward, pumped from the show and hammered from an endless quaff of ale, Mike played me a leak of the entire album. I protested and he ignored - as I said we'd been drinking so I was crashing at his pad and thus, I really didn't have a choice. I mean, I guess I could have left the room but we still had a few bottles of Sierra Nevada we'd picked up as a night cap and the fridge was in listening distance of his stereo so you know, what could I do?

In the end I remember next to nothing of this first, premature experience with Sol Invictus except that I liked what I heard and likened it to the next logical step after 1997's Album of the Year; like Bauhaus in 2006 or The Pixies in 2014 FNM seems to have perfectly picked back up where they left off. And although I've had moments of weakness, due to a pretty memorable night - or not memorable I guess - I've kind of been granted a second chance for that uninterrupted, environment-controlled first listen I'll get to have next Tuesday when the first album in 18 years from one of my all-time favorite bands - a band I really didn't think we'd ever get another album from - drops.

Life is good. And to prove it, here's Faith on the Tonight Show a couple days ago. The Tonight Show? Did they ever score that gig back in the day?

Age of Ultron and Joss Whedon's Influences

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

Secret Chiefs 3 - Agenda 21

From their imaginary Giallo film soundtrack. Love this record.

I was very hot on SC3 back when I first heard them, circa 1998 when they and then fellow Web Of Mimicry band Estradasphere turned Chicago's Double Door into a fire-swinging, book-reading, chair-surfing sideshow of insanity. Since then I've only followed either band periodically, primarily in the case of SC3 because before this record - which is a masterpiece of a different sort - the more SC3 records I bought the more I missed the Patton part of an equation in what seemed like the natural continuation of Mr. Bungle. I don't think that's entirely fair, but it was my interpretation of events at the time.