In my head upon waking; pretty sure I've posted this before, but it's good enough to post again:
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying went up yesterday. You can read it HERE.
Back when Riverdale first came out I loved their posters - the tone of the piece, kind of a Neon Noir look, really caught me, and the fact that I read/heard someone somewhere refer to it as "Dawson's Peaks" intrigued me; I couldn't care less about the Dawson part, but the Peaks part, well, that should be obvious. When season one hit Netflix I gave it a shot, liked it okay, but it just didn't make the cut; I have to be pretty severe in what I choose to watch these days, as my time for tv is minimal to say the least. Now though, I see this and I know I have to go back and catch up, because my mind is blown that season two of an updated Archie story (I should really stop thinking of it in those terms) has a Giallo element. I mean, who saw that coming?
Playlist from 5/17:
Eagulls - Ullages
The Geto Boys - Geto Boys
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Kitty Lester - Love Letters
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞
Lantlos - .neon
Two cards today:
It annoys me that I couldn't find the actual card, instead of this weird, dark-bordered version. Either way, I'm looking at this as I'm going to encounter my dark side today - or perhaps someone else's - and I will need to bring balance to the situation. This sounds about right, know the day I had yesterday and what's on deck at the office today.
Yesterday I dug out Eagulls' second album, Ullages, for the first time in quite a while. I really liked the album when it came out, but it was somewhat the wrong time for me to fully invest in it - I was still riding too high on the frenetic burst of their debut, and the dour vibe, while glorious, was perhaps too much of a downer at the time. Enjoying sadness can be tricky, and definitely requires a particular mindset; without that mindset there is no enjoyment, only Zoul. I mean, there isn't a proper enjoyment, more of a sulking. For me at least.
I stuck to it though, and it helped me process the tracks in a different context when I saw the band live about a month after Ullages came out; the band absolutely killed it, and all the new songs sounded fantastic, intermixed with tracks from the first record to inject a bit of pep and throb amidst the otherwise seriously downtempo tone. Going back to the record now, after some time away and inherent expectations have faded, I'm falling into the sullen British craft of the record and it feels exquisite.
Playlist from yesterday:
Jamiroquai - Return of the Space Cowboy
Eagulls - Eponymous
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Eagulls - Ullages
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine
Card of the day:
From the Grimoire, "Overcoming opposites - attraction. Recognizing what belongs together - union."
Check. A confirmation that K and I need to carve out a little more time together, as of late it's been difficult, with her Mom fully moved in and my writing constantly. Her birthday is tomorrow, and I intend to make this a very special weekend.
First, because I've been All-Black Metal, All-the Time, let's do something as a pattern interrupt:
After I finished David Peak's Corpsepaint two nights ago I immediately ordered this:
Back when I worked at Borders, this always caught my eye. I'm so taken with exploring this fascinating subculture right now that I just can't look away, and I wanted some non-fiction to bolster and sustain the high that I still have from Peak's book.
Playlist from yesterday:
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicenter
The Ocean - Aeolian
Venue - Desireena
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Deafheaven - Roads to Judah
Card of the day today was:
An eight. Of course. The number of building. Because I've worked on T12 everyday for two weeks, and Keller and I are really building something, not the story per se, but also a system by which we intend to tell many stories, the next two after this one already slated.
Falling down a black metal hole thanks to Corpsepaint, which I finished and weighs in as my fourth favorite novel of all-time.
Playlist from 5/12:
Darkness Brings the Cold - The Psychoangelic Crypt
Cocksure - TV
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1
The Best of Ella Fitzgerald, Vol. 2
Playlist from 5/13:
Burzum: Filosfem
Card of the day:
Could be good news coming when I combine this pull with something my boss told me late last week.
Here's a song I originally found back in the mid-00s and then lost track of. Recently, I spent a good amount of time looking for Salem's Dirt on youtube but A) although the video left a lasting impression in my head, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the track, and B) there are a lot of bands named Salem. Anyway, I get to Keller's the other day and he has a Grimes-inspired playlist on and I see Salem Redlights. This makes me think about my fruitless search and I go on a tear again, preempting our meeting just to try and find this song. And I finally find it, I think by googling some combination of the words, "Salem + Music Video + Garage". Creepy AF.
I don't know if Salem is still kicking. Back in 2006-2007, I spent a lot of time nosing around online for music. I was also reading Wire magazine rabidly, and between the two I found quite a bit of really left of center music. I'm not talking about System of a Down left of center - they're not - or even Mike Patton left of center. This was small stuff. It was also around the time I first heard the terms "Witchhouse" and "Hypnogogic Pop", which may have essentially been the same thing. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that just kind of got swallowed with time, Salem being one of them. I stopped reading Wire after I left Borders (I'd have to drive to Amoeba to get it - need to look into reading it online), and started spending my time writing instead of snooping for music. The one site I found during the final years of that whole musical archeology thing that I stick to religiously is Heaven is an Incubator, because honestly, Tommy finds only great stuff and he finds a lot of it. Good to re-claim this now as something I can go to when I need a freaky vibe to catalyze a scene or idea.
I signed up for Tubi and finally gave Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem another chance and, holy cow, I really liked it. The last time I think my two major problems were we were still kind of coming off his lackluster Halloween stint, and I fell asleep during my viewing. This time I was wide awake in spite of starting the movie with some yawns, but it pretty much kept me glued. And I thought Sherri Moon Zombie did a really great, somewhat nuanced job in the starring role. So that kind of puts RZ's films back in the black with me, with only his Michael Myers-as-Jason Voorhees singular one of his I hate, and the first Halloween feeling pointless and mean.
Playlist from yesterday:
Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin 1
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelicts
Nachtmystium - Reign of the Malicious
Darkness Brings the Cold - IX
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. 2
Burzum - Aske
The album is out now, and you can click HERE to go to Brooklyn Vegan and hear the entire album.
Playlist from yesterday:
Darkness Brings the Cold - Human Me
Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and See
Dead Cross - E.P.
Windhand/ Satan's Satyrs - Split E.P.
Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin, albums one and two
Teenage Wrist - Dazed E.P.
Card of the day:
The duality of the One. Two sides of the same coin. A marriage of alchemical elements. I'll choose to interpret this as I need to spend some time with my Baby, who I feel like I haven't seen ages due to work, my writing schedule and her having been sick for a week. Will remedy that this weekend. Happily.
I only knew about the surprise Dead Cross E.P. because Tommy still runs the got-damned best music blog around over at Heaven Is An Incubator, otherwise, I would have missed out entirely. Here's an awesome new Dead Cross video!
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up. Read it HERE.
Playlist from yesterday:
Chris Connelly - Phenobarb Bambalam
Chris Connelly - The Tide Stripped Bare
Nachtmystium - Man Made
Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelict
Nachtmystium - Reign of the Malicious
Peter Gabriel - Us
Brand New - Daisy
Eagulls - Eponymous
Holy cow! Chris Connelly has a new record that came out earlier this year. And of course, it's fantastic.
Highly recommended literature:
I started this yesterday. Fantastic book. The character of Stigoi is so hilariously based on a certain Chicago Black Metal Musician who, while I love his music, is known for doing the kind of bastard shit Strigoi does. This just makes me like the book even more than I already do, with its urban-decay-as-lifestyle that often proliferates internally inside self-obsessed musicians in cities like Chicago (I know, I'm from and was a musician there for ten years).
Speaking of which, let's combine several topics from today's post:
Playlist from yesterday:
Darkness Brings the Cold - Human Me
David Lynch & John Neff - Bluebob
USSA - Eponymous
Alice in Chains - B-sides
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Ghost Bath - Moon Lover
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta II - Dialogue With the Stars
Card for the day is coming from my back-up deck, the mini Hanson-Roberts:
I don't like this deck nearly as much - nothing wrong with it, it's just not my cuppa. I like my Thoth, but I hurried out of the house this morning and forgot to pull - this deck is pocket-sized and was something I found, so it lives in my bag for moments like this. As for the pull itself, XIX coming in hot on the heels of XVII The Star (yesterday's pull) suggests that while yesterday's writing session was a bit convoluted (occulted, to force a slightly square peg into a circular hole for the sake of the metaphor), today's will be better, with revelations aplenty.
One of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite albums. Had a massive writing day yesterday, and this was there to move me in over the finish line.
If you bought my book, read my book and like my book, please leave me a review. If you didn't like my book, you should leave a review as well. I'm all about the ying and the yang.
Playlist from 5/07:
The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Boy Harsher - Yr Body is Nothing
Jesus Lizard - Shot
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
David Lynch & John Neff - Bluebob
Card of the day:
Always a pleasure to see this, one of my favorite cards.
Now that my friend Chris's band The Thirsty Crows are on Bat Cave Records, he's been turning me on to all kinds of awesome music. Chief among this new influx of bands in my life is Neon Kross, the 80s-flavored second band of the singer for Rezurex. Darkness Falls is the first album I've sunk my teeth into from Neon Kross, and its fantastic start to finish. Wreckage particularly caught my ear with its homage to Flock of Seagulls' in the guitar parts.
Playlist from 5/06:
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
2 new Ghost Songs via Metal Sucks (Faith and Dance Macbre)
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Card of the day:
The Emotional aspect of Will, read: temper your ambitions with emotional maturity and care.
"7 Tales of Modern Horror: A movie that kills and the app that lures its victims. The Angel of Terror bound to a suburban apartment building. Online dating! Snake worshipping murder fetishists and a kill-happy couple out to take revenge on their landlord! A Collection of Desires traffics in the horrors of the modern world; horrors that walk beside us by day, and creep inside our dreams every night."
Hide is a band from my home town of Chicago that I discovered last night via Dais Records mailing list. I'm just beginning to delve into their work, but I find they scratch the itch left by bands like Throbbing Gristle, Excepter and, perhaps to a lesser extent but still in the ballpark, Skinny Puppy.
After people recommending it for years and me being a pig-headed hold-out, I've finally finished reading Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween. Gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads; sometimes I dumb.
(The reason I've long held out on reading The Long Halloween is everything I've ever read by Loeb - and granted all of it was well after this and Hush were written - was terrible. Not mincing words, and if you think I am, you try and make it through Ultimates, vol. 3. Go ahead, I dare you).
Oh! Finished Netflix's Dark last night. Holy mother of god, what an ending!!! Now, I need to construct my Dark murderboard so we can re-watch it and I can actually tell the characters apart.
Playlist from yesterday:
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
Bella Morte - Where Shadow Lie
Hide - Castration Anxiety
Card for the day:
The Earthy aspect of Water. From the Grimoire: "Dreams can become reality. Pay attention to your dreams. Focus thought through them, she can help you follow your intuition."
Well, here's some fookin' Pogues because I met Garth Ennis today and he did a bumper for Drinking w/ Comics. Footage to appear sometime in the near future.
I'm not really one for autographs. In fact, one thing life has taught me, through my experience and those of others, is to avoid meeting anyone you are a fan of at all costs. Not entirely true, but a good rule of thumb. That said, there are a handful of writers/creators I just cannot pass up the chance to shake hands with and, in some cases, ask for an autograph. David Lynch was one, and my friend Lita Weisman helped make that dream come true at the release of his book Catching the Big Fish. Fast forward a number of years and I was able to meet Stray Bullets creator David Lapham. It's hard to overestimate the influence Stray Bullets has had on me, and I had Mr. Lapham sign a copy of the original issue #1, along with Young Liars #07, possibly my favorite comic book cover art EVER:
And today came Garth Ennis. Awesome Comic Shop 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga had an unbelievable deal for Free Comic Book Day, where for the paltry cost of $30, you could jump all the FCBD lines, get three items signed by Mr. Ennis, and you received a copy of either the first trade of Preacher - got it and the original issues to boot - or Punisher: Platoon, which I'd never read. Signing wise, I had a pretty hard time deciding what three items from the collection I would ask Mr. Ennis to put his Nom de Plume on, but I ended up going with three mid-90s heavies and the first three things I read by the man:
Playlist from yesterday:
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Chelsea Wolfe - Spun
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Monolord - Vaenir
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Also, although I haven't been in the habit of listening to podcasts for a while now, I'm drifting back into it a bit. I spent a good deal of time over the previous two days listening to Blumhouse's Shockwaves Podcast, which I can't recommend enough for horror fans. I jumped right in with 2017's Halloween episode, where Waxwork Records' founder, co-owner Kevin Bergeron and composer Douglas Pipes were guests. Really great podcast.
How weird that the first time I dig out 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs here in a couple years and then write about it, is the same day that Alice in Chains drop a teaser of their newest song, presumably off an album not yet announced. And it's pretty good, too, this new track. Looking forward to seeing an album later in the year.
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying went up yesterday, you can read it HERE.
Playlist from yesterday:
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber III E.P.
Brand New - Daisy
Brand New - Science Fiction
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Thou - The House Primordial
Deafheaven - Honeycomb
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card for the day:
Ah! My favorite card. Probably because I made serious progress in re-formating my writing ritual yesterday and thus, was able to accomplish quite a bit.
It is my opinion that Alice in Chains never had a bad album until The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Now, I like pretty much all the songs on this record, however, I find it difficult to listen to as an album, top to bottom. Maybe their time has run out, however the absolute Shock of finding that I really dug When Black Gives Way To Blue earned them a lot of respect in my eyes. In high school, pre-grunge, Anthrax was my band. After the influx of new material with the post-Nirvana wave, Alice was. Dirt made an ENORMOUS impression on me; I mean, there is no way to overestimate the effect that record had on me. And pretty much still does, although time and life experience has obviously diluted that experience. When Layne Staley died I felt what people felt when Cobain did. I followed Jerry Cantrell's two solo records and liked them to varying degrees, but something was, obviously, missing. A lot of time passed and then James Duval came in to the picture and I felt divided; I figured Cantrell was at least 50% of the band to begin with (at least), and his name did not have the 'branding' that AlC did, so why begrudge the guy? The test came down to the music, and I have to say, I dug Blue a lot. It's never been in regular rotation, but then again most Alice binges are sporadic events at this point and they usually center around the original albums. Recently I dug Dinosaurs back out and listened to it and found I really like it. The title track is especially haunting musically, and here's a video I'd never knew existed! The one thing that diminishes the track for me just a skosh is the slightly awkward rhyming couplet in the chorus, with "Jesus don't like a queer" working but only just - 'like' seems like a weak verb there. But that's nitpicking, which is okay when something is this good.
Playlist from 5/02:
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
The Raveonettes - Ghost single
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Card of the day:
What is it with this card? Actually, now I know what all the recurrences of this one were warning me about - I'm not putting it down here, but suffice it to say it's something I have to solve and when I do, I will have a tiny influx of $$$.
So, obviously the consistency on these posts has begun to suffer a bit. My output here is still great, in my own obnoxious opinion, but it has wavered. This doesn't mean I'm losing gumption, or the new idea that held me in its thrall has gotten old, it just means shit has been hectic. So first, something a little less hectic:
Sign O' The Times is probably my favorite album by Prince, and one that holds me perpetually in its thrall; just hearing the opening notes of The Ballad of Dorothy Parker, with its odd, wobbly sustained keyboard note in the background and overly gated beat means I'll be immediately strapping this one in on the iPod at work in a few. From opening title track to the sexual juxtaposition of the two closers (Hot Thing is a one-night-stand sex romp, followed immediately by Forever in my Life which is something of an ode to settling down), Sign O' The Times IS 1987 to me, start to finish, in tone, themes and presentation, even if I probably only heard the title track at the time. Goes to show how every on the radio after its release was probably taking from it.
Anyway, I don't know if things have been more hectic or I'm just more scattered - well, #2 is definitely true - but I haven't been able to get a lot of work done on the T12 project. It's been a parade of responsibilities at work, even though I often don't feel like I'm doing much and the days are dragging, something that usually never happens to me. Friends say I'm just suffering from starting over in a new place, all my old protocols and procedures suddenly out the window. That must be it.
Playlist from yesterday:
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL - PLECTRUMELECTRUM
Boy Harsher - Country Girl E.P.
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
Black Queen - Fever Daydream
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
Card for the day:
And there you go. I just interpreted this card as the ruins of an old paradigm for my good friend Missi yesterday - she also does a daily pull - and just like that, I'm taking a few paragraphs ago about the growing pains of an all-new situation and I pull the Ten of Swords to further emphasize that, yeah, rebuild dude.
Sinking heavily back into Chasms debut album from two years ago, On The Legs of Love Purified. Such an amazing piece of music. Keller and I ran into Sky from the band at the recent Soft Moon show and she related that they were in the process of recording a new album. I could not be more excited.
The move is done. Nearly drove me mad, but it's done.
Playlist from yesterday:
Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle
The Veils - Total Depravity
Short list, eh?
Card for the day:
The watery aspect of air, so the Queen of Swords is the emotional aspect of intellect, so it's kind of pointing to a mixture of book smart and street smart (kinda - that's pretty loose as interpretations go). In my exhaustion, I'm unable to pinpoint how this applies.
I've loved this song since I was a kid, and for some reason despite its heavy use of what is now very 80s synth patches and reversed drum sound, this one never felt old or dated to me. Of course, now, because of groups like M83 and Cut Copy, those 80s sounds have been re-contextualized and don't sound quite so dated anymore. Lots of radio yesterday - which is rare - but we shuffled back and forth in K's car to prep her Mom's place for the move today and Jack FM was on for most of that time, and what's more, they played a lot of really good songs. This song was one of those.
Playlist yesterday:
Radio
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
While this one is considerably more Black Metal, there's something about the atmospherics behind the main music that reminds me of Zen Guerrilla's Positronic Raygun - a little bit, but its there.
Most anticipated read coming up? My friend Anthony just leant me these and I am stoked to dig in:
Playlist yesterday:
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Afghan Whigs - Black Love
Soul Coughing - El Oso
Mr. Bungle - California
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Iwan Rebroff - Singt Weisen von Wodka und Wein
Swans - Glowing Man (Disc 2)
Card for the day:
Good. It's going to take ALL of my Will to make it through moving K's Mom this weekend. I take this card as a very good sign.
I've been meaning to post this one for a while. My friend Duf is a great example of someone taking charge of his life. A few years ago he opened a comic shop in Elizabeth City, NC. Here's their FB page. Next, recently Duf took his love of music and parlayed it into a band. They played their first show last month, and although the footage doesn't quite do them justice, here's a taste; I'm super excited to hear the album Junior Jr. makes - I think it will be outstanding based on the songs we're hearing now.
That solo at 3:12!
Duf has confided in me there's a video coming for their song Guns A' Blazin - I'll break 'premiering' that here the MOMENT it goes up.
My obsession with the Arctic Monkey's 2013 album AM has been slowly growing over the last year or two. The radio at work - which I usually drown out with my headphones - bled lead single Do I Wanna Know? constantly from the time of its release until... well, I'm not sure when. In that time, when I would hear it I loved it, and I already loved the band's 2006 debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, but I'd lost track of the band after that and when I attempted to catch up, I can't say I took to Favorite Worst Nightmare or Humbug as much. Part of that may very well just have been me checking back in too late and finding they hadn't remade the first record - not that I would have consciously wanted that, but sometimes I hold exceptional albums against the rest of a band's career. At any rate, I grabbed A.M. two years ago or so and haven't let up since. The last few days though, it sealed the deal and it's been the record I most look forward to playing when I wake up. I don't always indulge that urge, but when I do, those 12 songs fill my blood with joy. Here's the one I woke up wanting to hear today:
No post yesterday in all my running around but I'm playing hooky today, my cousin and his wife are in and will be attending Drinking with Comics tonight, where one of the books I'll be talking about is most assuredly Ales Kot and Danijel Zezelj's Days of Hate, which I can't stop telling people about. 9 PM, streaming live on the Drinking with Comics' FB Page.
Playlist from Thursday, 4/26:
Afghan Whigs - In Spades
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Dead Cross - Eponymous
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Afghan Whigs - Black Love
Card of the day:
More Hod; also, note the Hebrew letter Shin at the Child Horus' feet - in further Kabbahlistic terms, this connects the card to the Shin Path on the Tree of Life. Shin is the Left Hand Path, which is associated with imbalance, hence the stigma on 'The Left Hand Path', or dark magick. Can't say that totally hits home with me at the moment, but I've been known to express interest (see my Nameless annotations), so perhaps this is a warning to avoid the urge to explore these systems if the inclination recurs, which honestly, I guess since the move, it has - putting hands on my collection of odd and arcane books culled from various places and people over the years makes me want to open them again. Plus, Scrying keeps coming up again. That's not inherently bad, but it can lead to some bad things if you're not careful.
Still riding pretty high off that Windhand/Ruby the Hatchet show the other night. Still recovering a bit from it, too. Here's another Ruby song, straight from the show the other night (I love how at 18:23 the person filming shamelessly zooms in on Jillian Taylor's bum).
Yesterday's playlist:
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
That last entry was a weird, off-the-cuff dalliance to see if a newer Ozzy album would be even remotely interesting. I'm not a huge fan of his solo stuff, but I grew up with it. Black Rain is produced well, the music isn't far outside of what you've come to expect from the Ozman, but the vocals are kinda meh. Not really a surprise. Funny how the night after I dine at the Rainbow Room - which was a staple of the 80s LA Sunset Strip Glam/Hair Metal scene, I listen to both Appetite for Destruction (for the first time in yeeeaarrss) and Ozzy.
Card of the day:
I drew this card early this morning to start my day. I don't feel very much in the way of stability or power though.
Windhand blew the fucking door off The Roxy last night. So did opener Ruby the Hatchet, who I strongly recommend you check out. Here's a taste:
These folks were straight out of the 70s - the keyboard player had a shirt for The Band on and the drummer had a Funkadelic Maggot Brain one. Awesome! All-around good time.
Ate before the show at the 'legendary' Rainbow Room; this is the place where Lemmy from Motorhead famously drank most nights, and as an interesting dovetail there was a scene in The Last Days of Jack Sparks that took place there, so it seemed fitting. The Rainbow Room isn't great - I've lived in LA twelve years next week and that's the first time I've gone, not in a hurry to return either. But, they had a pretty good burger, and they had Ballast Point's Sculpin on tap - I usually don't go for fruit flavors in my beer, and I'm not sure if BP adds the grapefruit flavor or if the profile comes from the way they roast their hops, which I believe is the case with one of the Goose Island IPAs, but Sculpin has to be about the most drinkable IPA ever. Switched it up to Lagunitas IPA for the show once we arrived at the Roxy - also my compatriot and I each took two gummies - 'cuz, ya know, it's Windhand - and I was feeling pretty amazing by the time the band came out.
Playlist from yesterday:
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Windhand - Eponymous E.P.
Windhand - their half of the split with Satan's Satyrs
Windhand - Soma
Jucifer - If Thine Enemy Should Hunger
The Veils - Total Depravity
Tonight! At long last, Windhand at the Roxy. I can NOT wait!
Dorthia Cottrell has one of those voices - it's one for the ages in my opinion. There's a haunted, cryptic quality that fits the music perfectly. And whether she's buried in reverb behind at wall of doom or upfront and exposed, it's the same.
Playlist from yesterday:
Etta James - Eponymous
Etta James - The Second Time Around
The Fixx - Phantoms
The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealand
Roy Orbison - Greatest Hits
The Soft Moon - Eponymous
The Thirsty Crows - E.P.
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
The Veils - Total Depravity
Card of the day:
Ebb and Flow. From the Grimoire: "If we struggle against the seasons, we will fall. However, when you turn (change) with the ebb and flow, you will reach a stationary peace from which your actions can harmonize with the power of Life's turning wheel."
I take this as, "Stay Limber today, kid," so let me start with some stretches before I head off into the day.
Still no dice on the damn Sleep vinyl. I'll give in tonight after work and listen to it on Apple Music. You can't win 'em all!
Listening to the Cramps live in Auckland, New Zealand. This vinyl is from Vengeance Records, a label started by The Cramps to release live and little-heard music on. The album in question, RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXXis atestament to the absolute grandiose insanity of this band in their heyday.
I finished reading The Last Days of Jack Sparks - I gave this one a solid 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. For a first novel, I'd say Jason Arnopp knocked it out of the park. Next up, a quick re-read of The Author Startup by Ray Brehm and then The Book of Joan.
Playlist from 4/21:
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Windhand - Soma
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers
Savages - Silence Yourself
Cigarettes After Sex
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Card for the day:
Interesting that I continually see some of these cards pop up. This one is beginning to perplex me, so I consulted an outside source. I'm having trouble relating to its perpetual springtime rejuvenation energy whoo-ha, however I found an interpretation, categorized as creative energy that needs an outlet, and that seems to fit. Need to find the time to jump back on T12, which I've really only picked at the last two days.
Never did get around to that Sleep record yesterday. I'm headed to Long Beach later today after I get off work, so I may just wait and try and pick up the vinyl then. I'm really saving that first listen for ideal conditions, i.e. smoke and vinyl.
It was announced recently that Oz/Osgood Perkins, director of The BlackCoat's Daughter and I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and son of Anthony Perkins, will be directing the film adaptation of Paul Tremblay's brilliant novel A Headfull of Ghosts. I can't wait, and it made me want to go back and re-watch The Blackcoat's Daughter, which I loved despite an interruption in the middle of my initial viewing last year. Here's the trailer in case you haven't seen it:
Not much of a playlist yesterday:
Metallica - Garage Days Re-revisited
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Card of the day:
Again! I think this is pointing to the fairly lackluster first day on the Keller project, henceforth abbreviated here as T12.
Well, my intention was to wake up on my day off, go get my oil changed and then hit Fingerprints Record Store in Long Beach to procure a copy of Sleep's brand spanking new album - the first in how long? 20 YEARS? - The Sciences. But after my mechanic Mike diagnosed my ride was in need of new brakes all around, that didn't happen. One Uber ride later I'm still waiting to be called to come and pick her up, not that it's a problem; the down-time has given me an opportunity to dig back into the project with Keller, which he passed back to me on the 5th and which I am only just now starting to work on. Because of all this, and I guess maybe because in a teensy way I feel like observing the 'holiday' this year simply because if Sleep waited to 4/20 to release it I should probably observe to enjoy, I've not dug into either my one hitter or the album, which despite lack of vinyl is very much available on Apple Music. Not to fear; there's some good, quality lounge time coming up later today, and I'll be using it to check up on what All, Matt, and Jason have crafted for us this time. Here's a song whose title I absolutely love, even if I haven't heard it yet. The way these boys work pot references into Science Fiction environments is amazing, not cheesy at all, the way most popular music hands intoxication.
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying went up HERE yesterday.
Playlist from 4/19:
Boy Harsher - Country Girl E.P.
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man E.P.
Deafheaven - Playlist
Drab Majesty - Careless
Metallica - Garage Days Re-revisited
Alice in Chains - Sap
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Card for the day:
Should I just assume this points to the futility to which I have attempted to save money recently? About to lay out about $600 for brakes and all I can think is I'm sure glad I bought those Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tickets four days ago, because I wouldn't have bought them after this.
That new Deafheaven yesterday made my week! Also, the fact that tix go on sale Friday to see them in August - and Drab Majesty is opening!!! Couldn't be more ecstatic. Now I need to look into the other opener, Uniform, who I am totally unfamiliar with.
With the release of Honeycomb, I've finally got a good number of one-off tracks by the band to make a nice playlist from their split 7" material and E.P.'s. Looks like this:
From the Kettle Onto the Coil
Honeycomb
Punk Rock/Cody
And come to think of it, I may add their Demo E.P. from 2010 to that as well.
Playlist from yesterday:
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Windhand - Soma
Boy Harsher - Country Girl
Deafheaven - HoneyComb
Blur - Eponymous
Deafheaven - Playlist (see above)
Card for the day:
Again with this guy! Interesting. I'm heading into Hollywood tonight for a business meeting, let's see what kind of journey that takes me on (I know there are other interpretations, the journey just seems to always fit where I'm at - always moving).
Seeing Windhand this coming Monday at the Roxy. Psyched does not even begin to describe my anticipation.
Episode 6 of Dark sealed the deal; I can't tell any of these damn people apart half the time, but this show is gorgeous and I am deeply intrigued at just what the hell is going on. A friend at work just clued me in to the fact that there are some family trees online and I'm hoping that will help, because I love the show, but I keep getting extremely confused.
Playlist from 4/17:
Mudhoney - March & Fuzz (disc 2)
The Brains - Out in the Dark
The Jesus Lizard - Rash E.P.
The Stooges - Eponymous
The Soft Moon - Deeper
The Ocean - Aeolian
White Hex - Gold Nights
Card of the day:
Well, wouldn't you know. Two days in a row? Hmm... Perhaps I need to let something go? But what?
Wow. R. Lee Emery was bad, but at least he lived a full life. Harry Anderson? That sucks.
Like Cheers, Night Court is one of those iconic 80s sitcoms that is extremely nostalgic for me but also totally holds up, unlike a lot of the shows I spent too much of my youth glued to the tv for. And Harry Anderson was, obviously a huge part of that. Dead at 65 is too young.
On the other hand, THIS made me laugh out loud. Good luck sir.
Playlist from 4/16 (A lot of vinyl):
Boy Harsher - Country Girl
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Soviet Soviet - Endless
Nirvana - Bleach
Mudhoney - March & Fuzz (disc 2)
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Iwan Rebroff - Singt Weisen von Wodka und Wein
Card for the day:
From the Grimoire: "Baggage. The Princess tries to ascend but has a massive tiger wrapped around her neck, cloying to her shoulders. Being that she is the Earthy aspect of Will, this is the Lust of Immediate Earthly Result weighing down or interfering with her Will. Sepheriothic Correspondence is Malkuth (10; Earth)."
Funny to do Hod, Chokmah, and Malkuth in a two-day span that's an interesting looking path on the Tree of Life; you can't go directly from Hod to Chokman, an ascending route, without passing through Tipareth. You can, however, take a bullet straight from Hod to Malkuth.
I'm not fluent in the Paths; perhaps I need to spend some more time on them in the near future.
Took K to see one of her favorite singers, Emily Kinney, Saturday night at the Hotel Cafe. LOVE this venue. So far I've seen Barry Adamson there, Vintage Trouble, and now Miss Kinney, who - despite my ability to connect with her music lyrically - has to have one of the best female voices in the business sans the highly trained stuff, i.e. Opera. Her band was damn fantastic as well; her guitarist Adam Tressler opened the night with his own material and it was great. He apparently recently released an album where every song is about lesser known Presidents, and he played one track from that, '31', which was outstanding. Adam's material runs a wide gamut, but the cornerstone of it all is he is one awesome guitar player; most of the set was him playing alone with just his Fender and some pedals - which he did not overuse - and it was captivating. When Adam did slowly bring up more musicians near the end of the set, first adding keys, then bass and drums, then female vocals, the set culminated in a fantastic track reminiscent of late 70s Elton John and Traffic. I've yet to discern the name of that song while rooting around online for his music, however I did find this, and I really like it for multiple reasons, one of which is absolutely that it's inspired by Vonnegut:
I finally finished the Ligotti anthologies and moved on. What a difference it is reading something fluent and not quite so scholarly. Again, not that I didn't dig some of the Ligotti, or appreciate it in its entirety for its place in the evolution of Horror and Weird Fiction, but it's nice to jump back into something a little less self-important. Recently, my good friend Jesus gifted me a copy of a book I'd not heard of before, and although I've a couple on-deck that I'm chomping at the bit to get to (The Book of Joan and Experimental Film, to be exact, with soon-to-be-released Laird Barron and David Peak breathing down my neck), I picked up Jason Arnopp's The Last Days of Jack Sparks and simply could not put it down until I was about 200 pages into its 376 page length.
This book is great. It's not horror, but it has horror elements, and what's more, there have been several scenes thus far that are legitimately scary. Like, like over-your-shoulder-while-you're-reading-it-at- 3:00AM-on-the-couch scary. Which I LOVE, and which is quite rare even for the Horror genre.
Playlist from yesterday was virtually non-existent and let's not even start on Saturday - I guess until the move with K's Mom is done, Sunday remains a day I just cannot find the time to post (yeah, but I found time to read 200 pages of a novel, eh? Maybe there's something to this day of rest stuff, eh?).
Playlist from the past two days (kinda):
The Soft Moon - Criminal
Man or Astroman - Defcon 5...4...3...2...1
Windhand/Satan's Satyrs - Split
Twin Peaks Limited Event Series Soundtrack
Card for the day:
And Sunday's Card, which I drew in the morning but never had a chance to contextualize:
So... a lot of Cups. Heavy emotion? Not really. Indolence could point to the fact that I didn't post yesterday. It would be interesting if the same thing happens next Sunday, card and all, since I've been kind of flaking on Sunday posts. Other than that, there's not a lot of room for lethargy in my life (though I did call out from work today; still working though). 8's match up to Hod on the Tree of Life, and we know from Alan Moore's Promethea, which is essentially a Grimoire masquerading as a Comic Book (well, that's where I know it from; obviously the correspondences predate Mr. Moore) that Hod is the Sepheroth of Language, relating to Hermes, Intellect and Communication. Now, here it gets even more interesting - I called out today, so that's my indolence, but I did so because I couldn't sleep. After a couple of hours laying awake, I woke up and dug back into Jack Sparks - and came across something I'd never read, heard or thought of before. While locked in a mostly friendly philosophical debate, Combat Magician Sherilyn Chastain argues to Atheist Jack about Science being a closed door, as short-sighted a system of belief as religion. She invokes Robert Anton Wilson, which immediately makes me love her character even more, and his Multiple-Model Agnosticism. She also argues, to summarize it, that Modern Science is a generalization of the laws of Greek Grammar.
Huh?
I'm quoting directly from the book here, and there's no plagiarism or disrespect meant; I HIGHLY recommend Mr. Arnopp's novel.
"The entire Enlightenment project was about rediscovering stuff the ancient Greeks knew. And because it's coded so heavily on that Graeco-Roman knowledge, there's whole gaps of things they didn't have words for."
Holy Moly. Never thought of it like that before, but it's obvious, even if it takes a bit of a cognitive workout to fully work that into as large a context as modern science*. But so here we have my indolence leading me to an idea new to me that centers on Language. The 8 of Cups through and through.
Also, in the Cycle of Cups, the 8 is where emotion that in 7 Debauch has gone from positive to negative with hints of addiction, becomes altogether Broken. This is, of course, followed by The 9 of Cups - Happiness. Not sure how all of this equates to me, but it's been a while since I deep-dove into a pull, so this is more an exercise at this point.
The Knight of Cups is always interesting, the Fiery aspect of Water, so there's an energy from opposites. From the Grimoire:
"Threatened by emotional deluge, the answer is within reach (note the Knight on the card reaching for the crab of revelation). The deluge is not without its rewards. Act fast and be careful not to drown." Sephirothic Tree of Life association on this one is Chokman. Hod and Chokmah, eh?
Almost forgot - Ghost dropped this earlier today or yesterday. I haven't watched/heard it yet, so I'm gonna post it and watch for the first time right along any one discovering it here. Album is in pre-order HERE. It's title is Prequelle and the cover art is fantastic:
Haven't been to bed yet. Drove into Hollywood after work, met up with Keller and talked shop for a bit before heading to the Teragram Ballroom in DTLA for The Soft Moon.
They were incredible. Here's the thing though, opener Boy Harsher - who I'd not heard of before - left a massive impression as well, almost too massive for The Soft Moon to top. Now, that sounds ridiculous when I re-read it, and really I think the exaggerated impact has to do with the fact that I'd never heard Boy Harsher before and they really just blew me away.
In love with this band right now.
Playlist from yesterday:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus Dig!
The Red Chord - Clients
The Soft Moon - Criminal
Metallica - Garage Days Re-Revisited
Public Image Ltd - First Issue
Boy Harsher - Yr Body is Nothing
Card for the day:
Definitely sated on experience after this weekend: the Nick Cave movie Thursday, Soft Moon/Boy Harsher last night and tonight (because it's Saturday, even though I haven't been to bed yet) is Emily Kinney at the Hotel Cafe. Gonna be ready to lay low for a bit until Windhand in two weeks.
Friday the 13th and I'm going to see the Soft Moon!!! Here's some awesome F13 stuff to enjoy:
New Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE.
Playlist from Thursday the 12th (a mention that will become ironic later this year):
Odonis Odonis - Hollandaze
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Ben Frost - By The Throat
Monolord - Rust
Pigface - A New High In Low
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Distant Sky (Concert Film)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Card of the day:
Always nice to see this one, especially when I just received the proof of my first book cover! Should I reveal it yet? Naw... not just yet.
New issue of Gideon Falls hit the stands yesterday. I have it with me in my bag, hopefully I'll get a chance to read it today.
Also, picked back up on Dark on Netflix. I had a lot of trouble with this show at first, mainly because the default was overdubs instead of the original German with subtitles. Now that I have that worked out (thanks Charles!) we're back in and it is captivating. I'm still having a bit of trouble keeping track of who is who, but overall the show is so fascinating and absolutely beautiful that I can't wait to have a few hours to just binge some of it.
Playlist from 4/11:
Ghost - Popestar E.P.
Man or Astro Man - Intravenous Television Continuum
Ghost - Infestissumam
Algiers - Underside of Power
Aerosmith - Eponymous
The Ocean - Pelagial
Card for the day:
Breakthrough! Always love seeing this card, especially close to the completion of a project that has been lingering.
