Chelsea Wolfe - Hypnos

Jonathan Barkan dropped this in an article he recently wrote abut Ms. Wolfe over on Bloody Disgusting. He is not wrong about Chelsea Wolfe - she and her music are magnificent and deserve to be heard by fans of dark, mesmerizing music.

Drinking w/ Comics Issue #31

Special guests Kat Rocha and Josh Finney of 01Publishing! Featuring Saint Archer Brewery's unbelievable Tusk & Grain ale!

Release From the Shackles of the Greater Corporation

Heard this last week on KXLU's Demolisten program. Great stuff. Reminded me a bit of old school Flying Luttenbachers.

Matthew Rosenberg's New Comic

Writer of We Can Never Go Home Matthew Rosenberg's new book 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank looks fantastic!

And Then There Were None...

Two nights ago my cat Tom died. I've been wanting to post something here as a tribute but it is really hard to accomplish this without breaking down into complete woe. No other word for it but old school, quasi-biblical woe.

Tom was my guy. He was my best friend and he had my back in ways that absolutely amazed me and solidified the idea that he had a very human emotional intelligence, and that he felt about me exactly how I felt about him. No offense to Lily, who also died recently, or Baby who is happy living in Ohio now, but Tom was my favorite.

Tom died in my arms, on my living room floor. I had my cheek against his abdomen and actually felt his life leave his body. It was haunting and terrible and magnificent, to know that my best friend died in my arms, knowing that I loved him.

My girlfriend Kirsten is new to our life, but just as I have fallen so completely for her so too did Tom; he made it known from the moment they met that not only did he approve of her but that he loved her. And she loved him. She was there with Tom and I when he passed, and the connection I saw between them - especially at the end - was beautiful beyond most of what I have seen in this life.

I will miss Tom for the rest of my life. The following were the three things I played shortly after his passing to try and honor him. The first because it is the saddest song I know, the second because Tom is short for Thompson, as in Hunter S., and the third because, well, it should be obvious.

Whispers From The Abyss Volume #2

I've really only just begun reading the first volume of Whispers From the Abyss from 01 Publishing but I'll stay straight off it's fantastic. Two of the stories in it - Nation of Disease: The Rise and Fall of a Canadian Legend by Jonathan Sharp and Death Wore Greasepaint by Josh Finney are probably among my top five Lovecraft-inspired stories ever. And now 01 has the second volume out digitally and are kickstarting the print edition. If you're a Lovecraft fan, a fan of dark or Weird fiction, or just a fan of great writing this is a well-worthy cause. AND might I add that 01 has procured none other than Laird Barron for an entry into this second volume.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

A Tim Burton movie without Johnny Depp or HBC? Based on a book I LOVED? I'm in.

(pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood)

Homicidal Homemaker's Black Lodge Pie!

Mr. Brown sent this to me on Twin Peaks day and I'm late getting around to watching the entire thing (yeah, at a whopping 6 minutes and some change this would'a kept me up all night, right?). I am SO going to make this. And I absolutely love the idea of a horror-themed cooking show, so I just did what I'm going to suggest you do - if you dig this subscribe to the Homicidal Homemaker's youtube channel!

The Callas - Could You?

There is A LOT to love about the new album from The Callas, a band whose previous record Am I Vertical? made my best of list in 2013. Returning to produce is Bad Seeds/Grinderman member Jim Sclavunos on a record that totally threw me for a loop at first listen. Not that there's not some sonic threads that pull Half Kiss Half Pain and Am I Vertical? together, but this is definitely not a case of a band sticking with a producer and adhering to a 'sound' that they created together. Half Kiss Half Pain still has those gloriously jagged garage rock leanings, but they're tempered with a nuance and sophistication that gives the record an incredible sense of dynamism.

I get the impression from juxtaposing these two most recent records (I am completely unfamiliar with the four previous LPs the band has - going to remedy that real soon) that The Callas are very much about moving forward, in the way that a band like, say Liars is also. Which is going to be a very good thing for those of us that follow their career.

So if you dig this, you know, buy Half Kiss Half Pain and follow their career.

Live WEEN from last week's shows

Screen shot courtesy of Tara Cushing's youtube channel

Mr. Brown sent me a sampling of what some of the fine folks who attended these reunion shows have put up on youtube. This user, Tara Cushing, has an wonderfully extensive documentation of all three nights so check out her youtube page here. They make me smile. Again, I simply cannot describe how happy I am to see one of my all-time favorite bands back together again - I'm literally tearing up just writing this.

BOOGNISH!

H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2016 San Pedro

SUPER happy to be able to promote this. I've gone two other times and both were fantastic - really looking forward to this year! If you're unfamiliar with the H.P. Lovecraft Film Fest and are a Lovecraft fan you can read my review of the first one I attended here to get an idea of the level that this fest takes it to. And as good as that initial experience was, my subsequent one was about ten times better, so that's really saying something. This fest improves exponentially with every passing year. And honestly, it's just a great round-up of Weird and Horror culture, as well as being a great time to boot, whether you're an HPL fan or not.

Among the vendors this year I happen to know that Josh Finney and Kat Rocha will be representing the wonderful 01 Publishing. Josh and Kat were our guests on the live stream of Drinking w/ Comics #31 last night and they were awesome! 01's line-up is kind of a dream come true for Lovecraft/Weird/Cyberpunk fans and if that sounds great or even the littlest bit titillating, I suggest you make an intro to their world with Josh and Patrick McEvoy's Casefile: Arkham "Nightmare on the Canvas", which made it into my top comics of 2015 and is an exhaustively researched mash-up of Lovecraft mythos and Noir.  Another great entry to the 01 world would be the Lovecraft-inspired prose anthologies Whispers From the Abyss, volume 2 of which is available in digital right now here or can be pre-ordered in print here. I only just got my hands on Vol. 1 and it looks fantastic and features stories by Josh, Kat, Silvia Moreno-Garcia as well as many others. And Vol. 2 features a story by one of my favorite writers ever, the inimitable Mr. Laird Barron.

Ghost interviewed at the grammys

The woman interviewing them clearly has no prior knowledge of them. I'm sure that was the case with most of the people at/watching the grammy's. That makes this all the better.

Thanks to my friend John the Viking - if he hadn't shared this clip with me I would have never seen it.

Papa kind of reminds me a bit of a less hostile Mike Patton circa Angel Dust era as he subtly makes fun of the interviewer's questions. Favorite quote: "You want to win to win prizes for what you do."

Awesome!

Daredevil Season 2 Trailer revels in The Punisher

YES! I'll admit, I have a fondness for Punisher: War Zone. But this... this is PERFECT. He should have always been intro'd as a supporting character, and the dynamic this will add to Matt Murdock, as he attempts to discern where the line is and if he can cross it... man I cannot wait! And I'll be damned if he doesn't look exactly like an amalgam of all my favorite iterations of Frank Castle in the picture above!

Ween's 1st Reunion Show was Last Night...

from: http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2016/02/13/ween-returns-our-1stbank-center-review-and-photos/113602/

...and although I wasn't there and won't be at the next two nights, Jambase has the entire thing mapped out, photographed and even some video! Check it out!

Here's one of my favorites that I was happy to see that they played last night.

David Bowie's Reality is this week's Joup Friday Album

You can read my thoughts and subsequently listen to Reality here. This is actually, I think, considerably more than just me talking about my favorite Bowie record. This  piece is the product of four long weeks of contemplating what the icon meant to me and why I have previously always gravitated more toward his later works.

Pictures of Lily

Yesterday I woke up and found that my cat Lily had died during the night. I found her at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the bedrooms. She was laying in front of the outside door like she and my other cat Tom like to do when it's hot - like it is this week - in order to catch a breeze from the gap between door and frame.

I loved Lily. She was the first cat to ever really accept me and she made me a cat person, 100%. Her acceptance of me seemed to make other cats okay with me, whereas before they kinda knew I'd grown up a dog person and held it against me (at least the two or three cats that had been in my life before that seemed to).

Also, she had incredible toe fur.

Later, in Lily's honor I jammed Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones. That influenced my pick for this week's Joup Friday Album, so instead of reiterating it here I thought I'd play the song that Pete Townsend wrote for Lily, many years before she was born, anticipating her legacy of drool, off-key yeowling and, well, an awful lot of intolerance. As she got older Lily's ability to interact diminished and she just kind of seemed as though she dislike EVERYONE most of the time. Except those quiet moments where she would come to me and want to be petted rigorously for a few moments before growing tired of my company and running off in a huff. I loved Lily's hate - it was adorable and I think helped keep her alive and well these last few years of her pretty incredible 16 year run.

Godspeed Lily; wherever you go from here I leave you with Hunter S. Thompson's words that seem to fit you so well, "Take no guff from these swine!"

Anticipation: The Witch

I'd thought I had already posted this, but apparently not. A friend shared the trailer with me several weeks ago on social media and I was immediately taken with it. The shrill, dissonant suspense the trailer cultivates makes me think that, regardless of the fact that The Witch is now getting some major hype - mostly because news outlets have latched onto the fact that the Satanic Temple are touting this as a big deal - it will still outreach my expectations.

What hype? Well, here's what Satanic Temple's has to say:

"The Witch is not only a powerful cinematic experience, but also an impressive presentation of Satanic insight that will inform contemporary discussion of religious experience. Yet, The Witch is more than a film; it is a transformative Satanic experience that, in its call to arms, becomes an act of spiritual sabotage and liberation from the oppressive traditions of our forefathers."

Wow. One can only hope. I'm not a, ahem, Satanist, though as far as religions go I'd choose that over most others - believe in and worship yourself? Better than a flying spaghetti monster - but I definitely think our world would benefit from anything that undermines the current global war between two extreme and downright dangerous religions (in their most frenzied forms that is): Christianity and Islam.  

Deftones Drop New Single Prayers/Triangles

I JUST found out that the new Deftones album, Gore, drops April 8th.

Fuck yes!!!

Also found out they released the first single today. Went to look for it and it had been taken down almost everywhere I looked. But here it is and it is, as usual, awesome!

Drinking w/ Comics #30!

The new Drinking w/ Comics is up! King Harbor Brewing from Redondo Beach very generously sponsored this episode where we welcome Jenny Wenger, Curtis Fortier and Chris Saunders to talk about their recent performances in The Comic Bug's Development Hell performance of Joss Whedon's abandoned Wonder Woman script!

Drab Majesty - Unknown to the I

Listening to The Self-Titled Show on KXLU while driving home from work tonight I heard this song and it just sank straight through my center mass. Wow. Reminds me of the first time I heard The Vanishing Kids, back at Chicago's now defunct long-time club Neo (sad face). The entire record by Drab Majesty - who I am going to try like hell to go and see on March 5th at The Smell ( this Saturday's gig opening for Black Queen is, of course, sold out) - is just fantastic and is available on the band's bandcamp here. Digital copies are limited to 300 copies so if you dig this, grab it NOW!

Twelve Sided Die!

Love this!

In the forthcoming Drinking w/ Comics #30 one of our guests was/is Curtis Fortier, stand-up comedian, writer, actor... jack of all entertaining trades on infinite Earths. He dropped a mention of this web series he wrote and starred in and I finally got around to watching it this evening. I love it and can't wait for more.

Drinking with Comics #29

I forgot to post this here when it went up. Ruben Gerard, creator of the wonderful Penny Strikes is the guest, Monkish, Anchor and Inland Empire beer is consumed and a good time talking about an artist's process, comics and caricatures is had by all!

David Bowie - Heroes Live 2004 A Reality Tour

I had a Bowie party this past Saturday night. Good friends, a bunch of alcohol and nothing but Bowie. It was wonderful.

The highlight of the night was my good friend Grez picking up my now long-neglected acoustic parlor guitar and leading a sing-along of Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, and - of course - Heroes. It was wonderful that Grez was able to time his trip to land smack dab in the middle of this (I picked him up from LAX at 8:15 and the party began pretty much as soon as we got back to my crib.)

It has now been a week since David Bowie passed and I'm still in a funk. I'm not the super-fan that has every record, knows every lyric, every everything about Bowie. His importance to me has evolved over the course of my life, from the guy on the classic rock radio station in the car whose songs I dug, to the enigma that surfaced in David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (that's when I became really interested) to the man who made one of my all-time favorite records in 2003 - Reality. That led to the full-on, "Now I start buying a bunch of his music" phase and, well, here we are. Still hard to believe the Starman is gone.

Surprise! Cloverfield 2 is DONE!

My good friend John hit me with this last night but I was stuck in the editing suite finishing Dw/C #30. Watched this first thing this morning and well, I can honestly say I CANNOT WAIT!!!

Bring on the monster (s?)

Boards of Canada Remix Mike Patton's New Group Nevermen? Yes Please!

I'm so confident this is amazing I'm willing to waste the jury's time rating the superhunks instead of actually listening to it before I post it here.

David Bowie - Lazarus... and some thoughts on his death

It's hard to look at Bowie at times during this video. Upon the release of the Black Star video/short film last month I found myself slightly unsettled at how he looked as though he had aged 30 years in the three years since we'd last since him in the videos released for The Next Day. After news of his death first thing this morning I learned of the release of another video after Black Star just a few days ago on the 7th of this month. Lazarus is, as this AV Club article so succinctly posits, a farewell.

The wherewithal and sheer force of will to complete make an album as a final statement, knowing you are dying, is unbelievable. I'm reminded of author Jay Lake, how he blogged his own death realtime, narrating his battle with cancer. As horrible as this is it is also amazing, as death is most inevitably a part of life, and a part that we know little about- emotionally, mentally - because it is private, and hard, and difficult to discuss, even with ourselves. Finally David Bowie died as he lived - bold, up front and totally owning his situation, converting it to Art.

If that's not one of the best ways to go I've ever heard I don't know what is. We often look to musicians and artists as inspiration, role models for how to live. Knowing that I will one day die I hope I can do so with at least a modicum of the dignity and creative force that Bowie died with. It's truly magnificent.

RIP David Bowie

This particular arrangement is, in my opinion at least, the perfected version of this song.

Sad day. The Man Who Feel to Earth has returned to where he came from. As is often the case when we lose an artist we love we binge their music, scrambling suddenly to acquire some of the albums we may have put off buying. In Bowie's case there are SO MANY I don't have them all, you probably don't either (although some of you most certainly do). If you're looking to celebrate the life of this wonderful, wonderful artist by adding to your Bowie collection I strongly recommend purchasing his 2003 album Reality and the accompanying double live disc from that tour.

Reality is BY FAR my favorite Bowie album - and that's saying something because I really like Bowie. It is the most original and unique of his work, in my opinion. The live disc is 33 career-spanning tracks, many of which have been re-worked, re-arranged and re-vitalized. Loving the Alien is a great example of that, but there's also an unbelievable arrangement on Earthling's I'm Afraid of Americans and Outside's Motel.

Drinking w/ Comics #30 on Monday, January 18th...

...at 7:30 PM, streaming Live from Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug, the best damn comic shop in So Cal! Our guests will be several of the cast of the Bug's recent live table read of Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman script. D w/C is excited to welcome Jennifer Wenger - to you that's Wonder Woman! - Curtis Fortier - aka Steve Trevor - and sound designer extraordinaire Chris Saunders (also upright bass player for the inimitable Thirsty Crows and the man who designed this beee-ooo-tiful flyer!)

 If you haven't watched/heard the read you can watch it on youtube here or on iTunes. Steaming of Dw/C issue #30 will be available on the Dw/C youtube channel here, or like us on Facebook and watch for the live link to magically appear around 7:30 PM on Monday, January 18th.

Huzzah!

Nathan Ballingrud's The Visible Filth...

...is one of the best damn horror stories I've read in some time that doesn't have the name "Laird Barron" on it somewhere. Mr. Ballingrud is the real deal and what he does in 60 something pages is worth 500 of a lot of other horror writers. What's he do you ask?

Gives me the heebie goddamn jeebies, that's what! The Visible Filth plays with that special place horror doesn't always know how to get to, the modern world; it is a story that makes small incisions in our technological awareness of ourselves, and once inside lays eggs of paranoia and revulsion. To borrow the name of Mr. Ballingrud's publisher and use it as an exclamation, This is Horror.

Also, many thanks to Justin Steele for the indirect recommendation.

My Favorite Comics of 2015...

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

The Pogues w/ Kirsty MacColl- Fairytale of New York

Merry Christmas world!

 

John Coltrane - Blue Train

My favorite Coltrane album. My favorite Jazz album for that matter. Fits this time of year like a glove. Put it on, sip some tea or coffee and maybe read a short story. However you do it, enjoy.

 

My Top Ten Albums of 2015

Just went up HERE over on Joup! Lots of good music, check it out!

Drinking w/ Comics #28

Special thanks to Movie Pilot's Editor At Large Alisha Grauso for returning to talk all things comics (and beer) with us! Topics include but are not limited to Netflix/Marvel's Jessica Jones and the comic it's based on, the upcoming Dr. Strange movie, Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Marjorie Liu's gorgeous comic Monstress, Star Wars: Vader Down, Tango Unlimited Comics' Descent of the Dead and Goose Island Brewing's new Farmhouse Ale Halia.

Twin Peaks - Coming Soon

LOVE these fan-made posters almost as much as I love black coffee and cherry pie.

Mr. Brown just sent me this Showtime video. Not a trailer, or even really a teaser, but my heart swelled when they lift the blanket off that sign.

TIAW TONNAC BOB TIAT TONNAC

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

Parsing for my best of 2015 list is becoming f^&kin' impossible. Here's another candidate. Beautiful; kind of reminds me of the first time I heard Opeth's older stuff. The album cover is disturbing as hell and kind of evokes the first season of True Detective if its villains had been members of a Black Metal-related cult. The tape holding the paper together in the background is the perfect little detail for me, makes it feel real.

Drinking w/ Comics - Vader Down

Here's a quick glimpse at upcoming Drinking w/ Comics #29 where Mike explain why you HAVE to read Marvel's Vader Down.

Myrkur - M

I LOVE this. It reminds me so much of Katherine Blake and Miranda Sex Garden, a band I miss dearly. M is definitely making it into my year end list. Sonically haunting, dark and beautiful; a storm that tears the heavens asunder and drenches the world below it in darkness.

We Can Never Go Home...

... is quite easily Shawn's favorite comic of 2015. Wanna know why? Read this week's edition of Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup.

New Besnard Lakes!

Courtesy of Mr. Brown, without whom this year I probably wouldn't have heard half the new music I have. Cheers mate!

Pre-order the new album, A Coliseum Complex Museum here.

Man Vs. Rock...

...is the indie comic that has had Shawn and Joe laughing their f&*king asses off all week. Wanna know more? It's all in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

David Bowie - Black Star

Mr. Brown sent me this at least a week ago and I've only just gotten around to watch it. New Bowie is always a good thing, and with what I keep hearing about the upcoming album of the same name (Out Jan 8th, 2016) being the 'weirdest' Bowie record in a long time, I for one am more than eager to have this in my hands.



Some observations:

I LOVE the return to the sax. Saxophone was once synonymous with Bowie - for me at least - and I feel like he hadn't really found a way to incorporate it into the new sound he's been toying with since 2005's Reality. No longer the case. Hopefully there'll be more on the record.

I also LOVE the return to utilizing synths and some of the overall aesthetic he experimented with in the 90s during his "industrial" phase.

This is weird as fuck and I LOVE it.

Indie Comic Descent of the Dead...

... is the topic on tap in this week's Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup.

X's For Eyes Pre-Order

Yet another reason to celebrate.

Laird Barron has a new novella coming out in a few weeks and you can pre-order it here. Over the course of the previous four years Mr. Barron has become my favorite writer, a man whose words move me in ways that feel ancient and endless. Over the course of four anthologies*, one novella and one novel he has become the first author in years that I re-read constantly. His loose-knit mythology has burrowed its way into my brain and I think that would make him happy. Surely it makes me happy, when it doesn't make me all-out paranoid that the eye of Shiva is staring back at me from the other side of some dark cosmic mirror that is probably focusing on me even as I write this...

If you don't believe me go here and, after subscribing to an amazing podcast, take forty minutes or so to listen to Mr. Barron's short story Frontier Death Song. I've listened to it countless amounts of time and it never becomes less affecting. Read by the inimitable David Robison, this is the perfect introduction to the cosmic pulp horror of Laird Barron's work.

WEEN's BACK!!!

The best news EVER came down the pipes yesterday and I've been too busy swooning to post anything about it.

WEEN IS BACK TOGETHER!!!



Now, it remains to be seen if Boognish can go home again after all the static, but let's fucking hope so. I seriously had tears in my eyes every time I've listened to them since they broke up.

Interestingly enough, this past Saturday, two days before the announcement I spent the whole day breaking in a new Ween shirt Mr. Brown gave me a while back and that of course meant I also spent the day listening to them. All day. All night. I now kind'a feel as though I may have done something of a 'rain dance', cuz within a day or two Mr. Brown shot me a text with the announcement and my happy circuits exploded all over the got'damned place!

Re-Reading the Age of Apocalypse...

... is the topic of what will no doubt be a much longer conversation over the coming months in Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup. Part one is this week's column.

Lake Trout - Her

This band blows me away. It's been a while since I've listened to them, apparently making up for it by listening to Another One Lost for hours on end today.

Placebo - Meds

I missed the boat on this one. Meds was in my collection for sometime but not by my intentions directly. I'd given it a half-attempted spin or two and not found the band to my liking - at the time - and that was that. And of course, the reason why I generally do not get rid of CDs is that A LOT of music is very time-and-place insofar as how you take to it. Murphy's Law dictates that if you do get rid of an album you have a pretty good chance of getting into it shortly thereafter. And that's just what happened here. My friend Katie's pick for the Joup Friday Album this past week was Meds and in reading her write-up and throwing the album on my headphones while at work on Friday I literally fell in love with it. First two songs gave me chills. Still do, two days and about six listens later. And yeah, Meds is no longer in my collection so I will have to be re-buying it. #don'tsellyourmusicbuildalifelibrary



I absolutely understand why previously I did not like this band. It's somewhat ineffable, however after really thinking about Placebo's sound in the context of the time this record hit I think I've come to some fairly weighty conclusions. There's no denying my initial prejudice has to do with the fact that Meds specifically and the band's sound in general has a lot of the trappings that bigger-market rock bands trafficked in during the early oughts. The voice and the way it sits in the mix, the guitar tone, the slightly narcissistic point of view and the underlying programming that gives the songs a sort of slick, Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals three times removed feel is, to me, indicative of this era of rock music, where many of the bands that blew up to varying degrees just generally leave me cold and suspicious of contrivance. That said, I think a lot of what I just described is actually the product of one particular metric that I can't really prove as anything other than a hunch - the fact that beginning with the late 90s and traveling on into the early 00s a lot of the bands who rose to prominence were helmed by the first generation of artists to do so having been raised on meds for most of their lives. The sound I describe above has a slightly overly-polished veneer - hence the suspected contrivance - because that's what the filter of meds does, it polishing reality. That's what a lot of that era's music is about, coping with that, and it makes sense that would leave its sonic fingerprint on the music. Again, I can't prove it, but Meds specifically would definitely appear to add credence to my thinking.

What say you (the Universal You, that is?)

Drinking with Comics #27

Issue #27 of Drinking with Comics is up! Special guests Pinguino Kolb, Robert Walker (Cuddli) and Damphyr (The Drunken Fandom) discuss dating in the geek world, fan-inspired cocktails and a whole bevy of books including but not limited to The Weirding Willows, Dave Crosland's Ego Rehab, Rat Queens, Always Raining Here and Skottie Young's I Hate Fairyland. Check it out and if you dig it please subscribe to our Youtube channel!

The Unkindness of Ravens

This looks amazing. I'm going to support the kickstarter after I get paid and I'm suggesting anyone else who digs this do the same.