Valkyrie - Feeling So Low

One of my favorite albums from my Relapse Records 30th Anniversary Golden Ticket is Valkyrie's Fear. Some call this Proto-Metal, and that fits pretty good for me, although straight-up Hard Rock probably also works, as long as that moniker doesn't diminish the band in any way. Because Valkyrie feels like a very tight four-piece making metal that doesn't slot into the modern broth a lot of the bands I dig sip from. There's a definite 'back-to-basics' with instrumentation, arranging, and vocals, so in that regard they remind me a bit of The Devil's Blood or Baroness. But these guys are their own thing, and I dig it.

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I don't remember hearing about Director Chad Crawford Kinkle's new film Dementer before seeing this post on Bloody Disgusting recently, however, with Larry Fessenden's name on top of the video drew me in, so that as I was about to post this trailer last night, I realized Dementer released this very day, so I hit amazon and rented it for a paltry $4.99 - SO very worth it.

The trailer doesn't give anything away, so my elevator pitch would be, "Gummo meets Hereditary." If that sounds as intriguing to you as it does to me, rest assured that although Dementer takes a little bit of a laborious journey to achieve its destination, the destination is 100% worth it, the atmosphere alone inciting a pleasurable Horror movie anxiety the likes of which I haven't had in a while

As an aside, it's been a difficult couple weeks at work - the unprecedented weather in the south basically destroyed FedEx's operations out of their Memphis hub for a fortnight, and with it, made my life a living hell. One of the things that always helps me through a rough day at the office - other than the copious amount of music I listen to on my headphones - is browsing Bloody Disgusting for new movie news. But almost a year after the first major changes due to the COVID-19 virus, the film industry's shut down is finally hitting us in the form of what feels like a MAJOR drought. People just haven't been able to film, and we've run through a lot of what was already in the pipes pre-pandemic, so there's not a lot coming out. First-world problems, I know, but it doesn't change the world from feeling even bleaker at the moment. In contrast to this was my stumbling across Dementer last night and being able to click over and jump right in. 

 

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Playlist:

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher

Melvins - Working with God

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

Lynch Mob - Wicked Sensation

The Misfits - Earth A.D.

The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup (single)

The Foundations - Baby, Now That I Found You (single)

Various Artists - That Philly Sound Presents The Best of Northern Soul 

Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

Queensrÿche - Empire

Keiichi Okabe - NieR:Automata OST

Valkyrie - Fear

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Card: 

The Elevatred (or Macro) view is always the clearest when it comes to details on the horizon. 

DJ Muggs and the Black Goat - Nigrum Mortem

Another new track from the forthcoming Dies Occidendum, out March 12th on Sacred Bones. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

K and I finally watched Ben Wheatley's remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca over the weekend. Loved it; K only showed me the Hitch a few weeks ago, and I have to say, perhaps because I'd been wanting to see it for so long and had high hopes, I didn't love it. The third act is great, but it's a rough climb to get there.  The Wheatley version, however, moves at a better pace. It's not faster, it just doesn't waste as much time with A) Miss Van Hopper (ugh), and B) meandering in the relationships it sets up. It also stages the mechanics of its denouement with a better sense of grace, without sacrificing the gorgeous ambience that often trips up Hitchcock's film. 

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Playlist:

Melvins - Working with God

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

The Replacements - Tim

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

PJ Harvey - Stories From the City Stories From the Sea

K's 70s Gold Playlist

 

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I feel like I wasted a lot of time resting yesterday, but after working a pretty rough week and a Saturday to boot, this card confirms I needed it. Now? Time to finish up this last (I swear) edit on Murder Virus, then, onto Shadow Play again.

Tomahawk - Dog Eat Dog

 

New Tomahawk track gets a music video! Can't wait for this record.

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Last night, K and I watched the original Black Narcissus film from 1947. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, I'd never heard of this one before seeing the trailer for last year's remake.

 

The original is beautiful. Shot in Technicolor, the film earned cinematographer Jack Cardiff an Academy Award that was well warranted. Also on display are the extensive matte paintings. It's a gorgeous film, although acting-wise, it's a bit over-the-top drama for my tastes. Also, I am going to assume the plot will far much better in the newer version (if it doesn't get carried away).

We finished the film and went directly into the first episode of the three-episode FX mini-series remake. Also visually stunning, where the matte paintings are replaced by aerial drone shots of no small ambition. 

I think together, these will make perfect counter-points to one another.

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Playlist:

Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (pre-release singles)

Tomahawk - Mit Gas

Queensrÿche - Jet City Woman (single)

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Nothing - The Great Dismal

Realize - Machine Violence

 

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Card:

Always a favorite card. That Boaz and Jacin behind her, the pillars from King Solomon's temple. I did a lot of research on these about 17 years ago (!?), but most of it's a fog now. Interesting though, this might run parallel to some of the content in Shadow Play, so I'll take this as a nod to dig up my notes.

Blanck Mass

 It's strange to me that, for all the time I spend listening to the artists on Sacred Bones, I somehow never heard Blanck Mass before yesterday. I'd seen the name, but somehow I just never clicked a link or happened upon anything organically. That changed yesterday when I somehow realized that Blanck Mass is the solo project/primary focus of Benjamin John Power, or as I knew him, one half of Fuck Buttons. I'd lost track of Fuck Buttons these last few years, and it's hard to believe it was a decade ago that I saw them at LA's Troubadour, where they blew my mind and ears in a volatile set of insane noise/techno/edm/soundscapery. Upon learning of Blanck Mass's pedigree, I started with this, the first single from In Ferneaux, out tomorrow on Sacred Bones. I then went to 2019's Animated Violence Mild and proceeded to absolutely fall in love with it. I mean, I listened to this fucker at least five times in a row over the course of my workday.

Order In Ferneaux or any of the other Blanck Mass records - all of which I plan on getting around to sooner rather than later - from Sacred Bones HERE of the Blanck Mass Bandcamp HERE.

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I haven't been in much of a Horror mood of late, however, yesterday I came home and took my near-customary Thursday nap on the couch with Shudder TV's Slashics channel on. When I woke up, I did so in time to catch Preston DeFrancis' 2018 Slasher-esque Ruin Me. I quite liked this one and; Ruin Me definitely plays with tropes we've seen before - maybe too much of late, hence why it took this long and happenstance to get me to watch it - but it's really good at what it does, and it has enough of a fresh spin on the Slasher/Extreme Haunted House set-up to make it unique and interesting. And no, it's not actually a 'haunted house,' but you'll see what I mean when you watch it. Which I'm recommending you do.

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Playlist:

Blanck Mass - Starstuff (Single)

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage

Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

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Perseverance in the face of frustration and or routine. This final final final edit on Murder Virus is killing me, but it will pay off HUGE in the end, making the book that much tighter, and thus I hope, compelling and enjoyable, with a healthy dose of "WTF?!?" thrown in for good measure come the fourth part. Still, reading the same book four times in as many months can be pretty fucking difficult, even if it is something you consider quite possibly your best work to date.

Posthumous Music from Alan Vega

The wonderful folks at Sacred Bones Records are bringing us new old music from NY legend Alan Vega! According to the Sacred Bones site, "...Vega was constantly creating. That process naturally led to a wealth of material that didn’t see the light of day immediately when it was recorded, which came to be known as the Vega Vault. Mutator is the first in a series of archival releases from the Vault that will come out on Sacred Bones Records." 

The first of these releases, Mutator, was recorded in 1995-1996, and it drops on April 23. Pre-order HERE.

I can't wait to see what else Sacred Bones brings out of the "Vega Vault" (LOVE that such a thing exists). 

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I'm not super impressed with what I've heard from the new album, however, it slots nicely into the Rob Zombie wheelhouse and there will definitely be a time/place for it in my routine. That said, I love this animated promotional short:

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Playlist:

SRSQ - Unreality

Tassilo Hagström - Berlin (single)

Alan Vega - Nike Soldier (pre-release single)

A.R.E. Weapons - S/T

Alan Vega - Saturn Strip

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Queensrÿche - Empire

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Angelo Badalament- Twin Peaks OST

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Emotional Jackpot. Power derived from Feeling. An oversaturation of emotion that while experiential, can cloud judgment and affect process.

Happy Twin Peaks Day!

 

Between waking up late and a slightly hellish day at work, I almost forgot it's Twin Peaks Day! Let's spend some time in the Double R to celebrate.

New Arab Strap!

Holy cow! This is the third single from the upcoming new album by Arab Strap? Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton's first album as Arab Strap in... a really long time! How did I miss that this was coming? The good news is the album is out March 5th on Rock Action Records, so it's not long now. The bad news? The vinyl is currently completely Sold Out. I'm hoping for a re-stock, so if you're like me, you'll be checking the Pre-order link for the next few weeks.

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Near the end of the newest episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast, Ray Larragoitiy asks Tori and me what we're excited about coming out in the next few months. I wasn't prepared for the question at that time and was pretty bummed to realize I could barely think of a thing. Seems like the COVID effect on productions has finally caught up to us. There are a few things, though. One of them is this:

Ben Wheatley's new film In the Earth should be along within the next few months (I hope) and I for one can't wait. 

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Playlist:

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Helm of Sorrow 

Thou - Rhea Sylvia

Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark (pre-release singles)

Alice in Chains - Dirt

The Veils - Nux Vomica

U2 - War

The Twilight Singers - Dynamite Steps

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets

The Soft Moon - Feel (single)

Joy Division - Closer

Nothing - The Great Dismal

Exhalants - Atonement

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 Taxes are good.

New (?) Music From Stereolab!

I'll admit that I'm not nearly the Stereolab fan today that I was in the late 90s-early 2000s. I had quite the collection of their albums on CD, but eventually realized it was hard to listen to a lot of those records in any mind-frame other than a passive one. The textures of their music are amazing, but a lot of it ends up being 'mood' pieces. Kind of sonic wallpaper, as one friend put it. That's not a dig, however, my listening has become increasingly 'active' since I first fell in love with the band. Still, very cool to see they're releasing another of their Switch On series, which, if I remember correctly, are all B-Sides and rarities. In keeping with these past releases, and again emphasizing the sheer volume of music this group has released in the last several decades (quantifying how many decades will put me in danger of feeling frighteningly old) I'm not entirely sure if Super-It ever saw the light of day before, however, here today, it sounds pleasingly fresh. 

You can order Electrically Possessed, the fourth volume in Stereolab's Switched On series, one HERE, it drops Friday.

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I have been wanting to see The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears for a couple years now, and it finally landed on Shudder, so I left work on time yesterday, loaded up a chillum when I got home,e and fell straight into this one:

The first 40+ minutes are a delight. After that, however, despite fighting like made to keep an open mind and positive outlook, this one devolves into what I would say is little more than aesthetic. I want to love this film, but a perhaps overly generous three-stars is all I could muster on Letterboxd. Still, Tears is GORGEOUS even as it tries your patience, and the OST is fabulous.

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Playlist:

The Soft Moon - Black Sabbath

The Soft Moon - Criminal  

The Soft Moon - Deeper

Stereolab - Electrically Possessed (pre-release singles)

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

Ghost of Vroom - I Hear the Ax Swinging (pre-release single)

Ghost of Vroom - 2 (Single)

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Card:

Pretty gnarly advice for me and a friend (I think) on how we can get tripped up by our own thinking and expectations of what we believe is "going to happen" based on pre-existing experience, which emotionally, can masquerade as emotional empirical evidence, such a thing that is not to be taken on faith. 

From the Grimoire: "Beware the mire of the mind; consciousness needs to flow freely, not become muddied by obsession. Push past what you think you know and be open to the Universal influence that can often reinvigorate our thoughts and practices."

I Hear the Axe Swinging

I emerged from a mid-afternoon nap yesterday to a text from Mr. Brown alerting me to the fact that Mike Doughty and Andrew "Scrap" Livingston's Ghost of Vroom dropped a new track. "I Hear the Axe Swinging is from the forthcoming album Ghost of Vroom 1, out March 1st. Pre-order the album HERE.

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K and I started Penny Dreadful this weekend. Wow! I always suspected I would dig this show, and I don't know if my relationship with it is so good because our timing meant it dovetailed with my finishing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but this one is fantastic. There's an obvious debt to Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but Penny Dreadful is dark, disturbing, and often quite gruesome, and the show's ambitions to bring together so many iconic Horror personalities is really served well by in-depth research. 

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Playlist:

White Lung - Paradise

Melvins - Working with God

Sleaford Mods - Nudge It (single)

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

The Blueflowers - Relapse EP

Gwar - Scumdogs of the Universe

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Small Black - Duplex (single)

PM Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss (single)

The Bangles - Different Light

Van Halen - 1984

Def Leppard - Pyromania

Chuck Berry - Berry is on Top

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

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 "Look unto yourselves for answers, as it is in your partnership you will find that which you seek."

What's the Rush?

 This made me laugh out loud. Wow, I love Jello Biafra!

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Can't wait, even if the first season of Shudder's Creepshow was a bit of a mixed bag.

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Playlist:

White Lung - Paradise

Nothing - The Great Dismal

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Nothing - Downward Years to Come

Orville Peck - Pony

NIN - Add Violence

How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House 

The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

 

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Ebb and flow, which is exactly the tactic I'm currently using to balance between another final (for real this time!) edit on Murder Virus, and working on Shadow Play Book Two. This is not normally how I work; jumping between books prevents momentum. However, I received the proof for MV and reading it as an actual book - as opposed to a document on a screen - is a lot of edits to the surface. Which is a good thing. 

New Iceage

No, I'm not talking about where all this freaky weather is eventually going to lead us, I'm talking about new music from Iceage! Seek Shelter is out May 7th on Mexican Summer. Pre-order HERE.

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K and I finally got back around to finishing His Dark Materials season 2 on HBO. Damn. This show is fantastic. The scope! I'm chomping at the bit to re-read these books, and since the three-book set that was so ubiquitous in the early 00s that sat on my shelf for over a decade went with the ex, I snagged a copy of the Omnibus that came out a few years back. After I finish Frankenstein, I believe I'll be digging into that one.

While I wait for the third and final season, I took to youtube to see if I could find anything documenting the two-part stage play adaptation that I saw in London circa 2004. This was all I could find, but it gives at least a little bit of an idea of what this looked like:

 

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Playlist:

Genghis Tron - Ritual Circle (pre-release single)

Tomahawk - Eponymous

Airiel - Molten Young Lovers

Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars

Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City

Queensrÿche - Empire

Melvins - Working With God (pre-release tracks)

Melvins - Houdini

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

White Lung - Wild Failure (Single)

White Lung - Paradise

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave

The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust 

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Something important is obscured, or for some reason I am just not seeing what is right in front of my face.

Genghis Tron - Ritual Circle

 

More new Genghis Tron. Very much looking forward to this record when it drops! Pre-order Dream Weapon - out March 26th - from Relapse Records HERE.

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READ:

I wanted to plant this HERE. really for myself, so I can find it again easily later. In going through old Orbital Operations emails for inspiration, I found this link to Sean Bonner's website. I am wholly unfamiliar with Mr. Bonner, or at least I was before reading this - but it's interesting that I read this now. There would appear to be a lot of synchronicities with me reading this post at the moment, not the least of which is that I'm about to turn 45. Anyway, since Orbital Operations went on hiatus last year, I've sorely lacked intermittent missives that at least in some regard pertain to the process of writing or creating or just structuring time (hence re-read old OOs), and Mr. Bonner's newsletter looks as though it may help fill that void.

 

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NCBD:

This is obviously a big one. I'm curious if, after the reveal at the end of issue #1, The Last Ronin will remain so highly sought after. My guess is no, but who knows? Also, who cares - the book is bad ass and I'm super excited for the next chapter.

One of my favorite series in years, issue #4 of We Live kind of set the whole series on its ear, and if I'm not mistaken, this is the final issue of the series. 

Another final issue. Hopefully, both We Live and Miskatonic will be back with second seasons. If not, it's been a hell of a ride for both in a very short time.

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Playlist:

Nothing - The Great Dismal

Dance with the Dead - B-Sides, Vol. 1

Teenage Wrist - Earth is a Black Hole

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Mr. Bungle - Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny

Primitive Man - Immersion

Ceremony - In the Spirit World Now (Synthetic Remixes)

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Balance and synthesis, two things I'm a skosh hung up on at the moment. I received the proofs of Murder Virus and am a bit underwhelmed at how the art looks in person. Also, I found a fucking typo on the first page! WTF!!! I've gone over this so much, I'm no longer seeing what's in front of my face. Ultimately, all this is easy to fix before the on-sale date of 3/23/21, but it's the point. 

The Gate Dismal

I'm pretty late checking out Nothing's latest release, which came out last year on Relapse Records. The Great Dismal was included in my Golden Ticket haul from Relapse, and I'm still working through that. A Fabricated Life begins the record, and I won't lie - its slow, soft, dreary sound hasn't been where my head is at. That said, listening to the record on headphones for the first time this morning, I'm able to grasp the nuance and vibe of the song, and it has stirred something within me. Something that harkens back to the first Nothing release, Downward Years to Come, which I discovered back in 2013. I love this band, and haven't spent nearly enough time with them these past two records, so I'll start correcting that today.

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I stumbled across this short film - really more of a Proof of Concept trailer for a movie I can only hope gets made. Very cool use of CGI, ingenious locations, and what looks like the set-up for an intriguing take on Cosmic Horror. Directed by Matt Sears and written by Ryan Grundy, Mr. Sears' youtube channel appears packed with interesting content. Sub HERE.

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Playlist:

Cinderella - Long Cold Winter

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Emilie Autumn  - Opheliac 

Keiichi Okabe - NieR: Automata OST

 

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Spot on today, as I've definitely been preoccupied with a sort of drifting that has displaced a lot of my creative intent. I'm sure it's just a phase, but it makes me contemplate ideas like, "What if I lose all motivation to write?" which is ridiculous, but, you know, this is the way the mind works.

Does this Slipper Belong to You?

Wow, I am in a weird headspace this morning. Woke up earlier than needed and went right to looking this album up on Apple Music. I've had hair rock on the mind for the last few days. This goes back to that Recontextualizing the 80s idea I was posting about here a few years ago. Some of this stuff from the Sunset Strip sound of the 80s is definitely best left forgotten, but some of it has a place in history. Or at least in my history, I guess. 

I never owned Cinderella's Long Cold Winter, but a friend in the neighborhood did, and I can remember hanging out at his house and popping it into the stereo more than a couple times. Other favorites at the time  (off the top of my head) would have included Metallica's ...And Justice for All, ICE T's Power, GnR's Lies, and NWA's Straight Outta Compton. This was really at the start of my getting into music in a 'beyond the radio' way, and this neighbor was loaded and, in the way of a lot of rich folk a bit clueless, so he tended to buy tapes and CDs rather haphazardly (I didn't have a CD player yet, so he was my first exposure to the format). 

I still have no idea why or how he chose to pick up a Cinderella album in the first place, this really wasn't his sound, but it was that anomaly factor that made me first pluck it from a pile of CDs and put it in the more than ample stereo. Over the course of a couple of weeks, Long Cold Winter became a go-to when hanging out at his house and listening to music, but that friendship dissolved shortly thereafter and he was lost to the waves of time. I haven't heard the album since. 

Once you get past Tom Keifer's throat-singing, this record has a pretty cool sound. The title track still stands as a damn good example of that 80s rock/blues sound that, in my opinion, was perfected on Gary Moore's Still Got the Blues for You, and it's this quality, as well as the ripping slide guitar sprinkled here and there, that elevates Long Cold Winter above your standard 80s Hair Rock sound, although Cinderella does that to varying degrees of palatability throughout the rest of the record, as well.

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Joe Bob Briggs gave us the best of his Holiday specials he's done in some time last Friday with the Joe Bob Put a Spell on you, where he paired the Gore-cut of Tammy and the T-Rex with Anna Biller's The Love Witch. 

I was fortunate enough to catch the premiere of Vinegar Syndrome's release of the long-lost Gore-cut of Tammy at Beyondfest 2019 - the film actually followed an in-person presentation of Joe Bob doing his How Rednecks Saved Hollywood lecture. Both were fantastic, and it was cool to see the two together again. 

The Love Witch is one of the first movies K and I actively waited on the VOD premiere for back in the early phase of our relationship, due to a great LA Weekly article that talked about the absolute care and detail Ms. Biller put into making the film. 

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Playlist:

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Van Wissem - The Mystery of Heaven

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes

Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Daniel Pemberton - Motherless Brooklyn OST

Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Teenage Wrist - Earth is a Black Hole

Helmet - Meantime

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III Alive After Death

Zombi - 2020

The Bangles - Different Light 

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Card:

Coincidentally, as I draw from my Thoth Deck, I reflect on the fact that one of the things I most love about The Love Witch is there is a room in the film painted with the colors of the deck. 

 Hammering away with increased gusto but an edge of carelessness that can bring the whole damn thing down around your ears. Ease back and keep a keen eye. This is totally a nod that I'm overworking myself and need to take tonight to chill out. Science and Will must be strategic (to a degree), and still possessed of mindfullness.

Emma Ruth Rundle & Chelsea Wolfe - Anhedonia Official Video

I know I just posted the song, but there was no way I wasn't going to post what might just be my favorite music video in the last decade. It's the rare case where the visuals actually add to the meaning and impact of the song. These two artists are at the top of their game and cranking out material - all of it awesome! Again, I'll echo the sentiment I did the last time I posted this and hope there's an album or EP on the way.

 

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K and I did the Netflix Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel over the last two nights. Wow- this should have been a two-hour documentary, but instead, the creators padded it out with A LOT of really infuriating conjecture and nonsense from the 'web sleuth' community. I would unilaterally detest this community, if not for the side of it on display in the HBO doc I'll Be Gone in the Dark. The difference appears to be one of talent and drive - Michelle McNamara and her immediate confidants within the community are clearly light-years beyond the people spouting obvious banalities in the Cecil doc. Either way, the doc starts pretty good, has a fascinating story at its heart, and ends up finishing a lot better than the middle would have suggested it would. 

If nothing else, watching this has made me rabid to re-watch American Horror Story: Hotel, still my favorite season of the five I've seen. Based largely on the Cecil, it will be cool to go back and watch it with the real-world inspiration fresh in mind.

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Playlist:

Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (Single)

King Woman - Doubt EP

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

The Blueflowers - Relapse EP

The Veils - Time Stays, We Go

Vel Indica - Turn Off Your Devices

Def Leppard - Pyromania

Small Black - Duplex (Single)

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Depeche Mode - Essentials

Genghis Tron - Deam Weapon (Single)

Genghis Tron - Cloak of Love EP

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Ghost - Infestissumam

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

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Card:

 Recognizing the powers in the Universe you cannot contest, and having the heart to allow them to move you. I'm sure that my fortune cookie-esque reading has something to do with the renewed approach I've taken to Shadow Play Book Two, and the fact that while I was away finishing Murder Virus, it has somewhat changed - for the better. Still, changing things at this stage is daunting, even if it means the story will be better. However, as the card says, recognize the powers that move you and listen to what they're telling you.

Pre-orders for Murder Virus are Live!

 

Off the top of my head, you know what'd be cool? Some new music from King Woman in 2021. I'll keep checking their Bandcamp and hope for the best.

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Pre-order:

The culmination of eleven months of work is finally official! Murder Virus releases everywhere on March 23rd - one day before my 45th birthday and exactly 374 days after the early morning trip to a barren Trader Joes to wait in line for scraps that convinced me I'd be crazy not to dig out the manuscript for the first successful piece of long-form fiction I ever wrote, dust it off, and re-write it.

2007 - in order to cope with the constant insanity of working retail for the first time in my life - as a manager to boot - I wrote The Secret Life of Murder, a novel about a murder virus that moves through the population, causing people to kill one another in epic scale. The idea was to create a harmless microcosm where I could vent my frustrations with fictionalized violence. It was my first attempt at writing a novel that I actually thought worked, and I always kept it in the back of my mind that I would dust it off one day and re-write it. Well, what better time than during an actual viral pandemic? So that's why the second Shadow Play book was delayed - I literally shifted gears in the middle of writing it to focus on this. 

The title Murder Virus, which I hated at first, worked its way into my brain stem and eventually convinced me to love it, especially after a friend compared it in simplicity and 'high concept' to Fight Club, which also sounds pretty generic until you actually read it. That's my feeling with this one, too. Murder Virus is a lot darker and stranger than I realized while writing it, and the story does not end up anywhere I could have predicted. This makes it my favorite thing I've written to date. I'm extremely proud of this one, and obviously, because of the infusion of mental, physical, and historical elements of the past year, it's special to me and will no doubt always remain so; a time capsule of 2020 and where my head and emotions were while navigating the most difficult year (so far) of my life.

You can pre-order Murder Virus from Barnes and Noble HERE.

You can pre-order Murder Virus from Amazon HERE.

And the pre-order for Murder Virus from Indiebound isn't up yet but should be in a day or two (same with the Barnes and Noble paperback - right now they only have the ebook added to their site).

If you have a brick-n-mortar book store and really want to do me a solid, ask them to order a few copies from Ingram. They'll know how to do it. Oh, and thanks for reading!

Also, as always, that beautiful cover design was my concept executed well above my expectations by Jonathan Grimm. His website is HERE - check it out!

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Playlist:

White Lung - Eponymous

Beth Gibbons, The Polish National Radio Sympony Orchestra & Krzysztof Pernderecki - Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3

Danzig - Danzig III: How the Gods Kill

The Besnard Lakes - A Coliseum Complex

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

The Maine - You Are OK

Windhand - Eternal Return

White Ward - Live Exchange Failure

Nirvana - Bleach

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

King Woman - Doubt EP

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Card:

 

Applying this card to the announcement above.

Ashen Grey Clouds of Doom Bring Purple Rain

As I continue to work my way through that stack of records that Relapse Records put out in 2020 and that I won for their 20th Anniversary, one of the bands I had no experience with whatsoever is Inter Arma. Garbers Days Revisited is an all-covers record, and I have to say, my first listen was super fun. Opening with Ministry's "Scarecrow" - super relevant to my recent listening habits - the group move through versions of "Southern Man", "March of the Pigs",  and "Running Down a Dream", to name a few. All these versions range from sludged-up to more or less straight forward, such as the above Prince track. 

Very cool record with one of my favorite album covers in a while, so I'll definitely be digging deeper into the Inter Arma catalogue.

 

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Read:

Not realizing that Bernie Wrightson's graphic novel adaptation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is out of print, I ordered what I thought was a copy from Amazon a few days ago. What arrived instead was the illustrated novel that features 40 of Wrightson's drawings.  Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed - I've read Wrightson's sequel, Frankenstein Alive, Alive,  but never that original. What makes it worse - the book goes for a minimum of $150 used with the nice version garnering between $300-$500 - is Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein adaptation was a book that routinely sat on the shelves at the borders I helped manage for years, and I just never got around to buying it. 

Regardless of the letdown,  looking at the illustrated novel, I realized it's been since Junior High since I actually read the original, and this new version has a bunch of cool supplemental material - a forward by Stephen King, a "historical context" essay and timeline, and the 1831 introduction by the author herself. Needless to say, this is my next read.

Looking through the illustrations, I realize what a shame it is I came to really appreciate Wrightson so late, as Mr. Wrightson's work is only describable as exquisite.

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Playlist:

Bit of a 90s parade of late, but that doesn't happen all to often, so I'm going with it:

Death - Human

Faith No More - The Real Thing

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (Deluxe)

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

Disappears - Pre Language

Garbage - Eponymous

The Maine - You Are OK

Inter Arma - Garbers Days Revisited

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Card:

As I often view this card as a nod toward saving money or 'nesting,' I've taken recent interpretations to possibly reference avoiding tempting social situations. I've had about five social outings - all super small with only one or two other people outside my own household - in the last year (hence this blog's brief stint titled 'Quarantine Junkie'), but recently, I've felt the urge to see a friend or two. Nope. Time to batten back down that Will and get the course set straight ahead. I recently came across this article that should serve as enough of a reminder. The idea of our air quality being so adversely affected by a record number of cremations is baffling - we're living in the setting for a Sci-Fi Horror Film, and not even aware of it on a day-to-day level. 

She Knows

As much as I dislike everything about this band from about 1994 on, I feel like I've reclaimed a bit of myself by finally being able to come to terms with the fact that the Billy Corgan who recorded the music for these first two Pumpkins albums was replaced by some lame doppelgänger from planet suck around the time the band started recording Melon Head and the Infinite Sandwich. 

Love this track, takes me back.

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Watch:

 

Yeah, I'm back in the Marvel game. Feels good.

 

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Playlist:

The Blueflowers - Relapse EP

Cocteau Twins - Garlands

NIN - Broken EP

Dream Divison - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

Exhalants - Atonement

Nirvana - Bleach

Faith No More - The Real Thing

Blueflowers - Relapse E.P.

 I'm pretty sure I've confessed my love for Blueflowers' 2018 album Circus on Fire somewhere in these pages before, but recently, I've been falling deep into their 2019 Relapse E.P.

Blueflowers' sound drips with the kind of sultry, otherworldly space that Chris Issac's music does, or David Lynch's cinema. It's lush, spooky, and sensual, and I absolutely adore it.

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Watch:

We had a bit of a marathon last night. Even on Fridays, it's not often I can stay awake long enough to watch multiple movies, so when I do get that kind of momentum, I exploit the hell out of it.  

We started with yesterday's episode 5 of Wandavision. I'm not going to post anything about it here, but needless to say, I am salivating at the things this show is setting up!

 

This one would have been in my 2020 top five at least if I'd seen it before year's end. It had me from start to finish, and was probably at least partially responsible for supercharging my motor enough to make it through another flick afterward. I'm posting the trailer here, but my suggestion is to not watch it - just go in blind. I did, and it made for an awesome ride!

 

I've avoided this one for years, but now that Wandavision has me flying high on the MCU again, I figured I'd go back and watch/re-watch all the movies to date in the chronological order they take place in the continuity of the MCU. Turns out, I really dug this one, and it was totally the right time for me to see it, as so much dovetails with the current storyline in Wandavision.

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Playlist:

Human Impact - Genetic (single)

20 Watt Tombstone - Wisco Disco

Led Zeppelin - Presence

NIN - Get Down Make Love (single)

NIN - Burn (single)

Various - Spawn OST (Manson and Sneaker Pimps & Butthole Surfers and Moby tracks only)

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Dream Division -  Beyond the Mirror's Image

Human Impact - Genetic

 
Somehow, I either missed or forgot that Human Impact released a single in September of last year. "Genetic" is a terse little fist to the throat, wrapped up tight in Human Impact's trademark, snarling severity. Hopefully, this is a sign of more new music to come.

 

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READ:

I did a lot of catching up on current comics over my brief sabbatical from work earlier in the week. Here's what I read and my take:

I didn't realize The Boys: Dear Becky was ending with issue #8 until I read issue #7. Now that the whole thing is out, I re-read it all from the beginning and enjoyed it quite a bit. The Boys is a really uneven epic in my eyes, with moments of emotional brilliance surrounded by what I've come to think of as Garth Ennis just being Garth Ennis. It worked the best in Preacher, but as with the regular Boys series, Dear Becky tends to step back up into the sublime just as you start to feel jaded about the ridiculousness. Overall, if you only know the show, you probably don't need to go back to the source material - The Boys is possibly the best example of an adaptation-for-screen that has completely trumped its source material - however, if you know and dig the original comic series, Dear Becky will scratch the itch.

Having only just read Laura Marks and Kelley Jones's Daphne Byrne a few months ago, our Deep Dive into Hill House Comics on a recent episode of A Most Horrible Library made me want to revisit this stunning Gaslamp-era New York. It's soooo good. Kelley Jones really just brings the creep factor up to eleven here, and it makes for a really fun, pleasing story with all the fixings - widows betrothed to the Devil, ghastly visions, malevolent visitations, and surly, Hackney con artists using peoples' grief and the rise of spiritualism to take advantage of them. 

This one came out in October, but I just read it, then kept it hanging around in the stack so I could read the short story and other backmatter stuff that rounds out every enormous issue of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus, an economy based dystopian world that I have become more and more convinced maybe the closest thing to what the world is going to look like by the end of my lifetime. Equal parts thrilling and intriguing, there's espionage, military strategy, human drama, and action. 

I'm using the image for the upcoming HC collection of Hellblazer: Rise and Fall, but if you can find the single issues, that's the way to read this one. The Black Label, Magazine format is perfect for this story, possibly the first new Hellblazer story in years I've actually really liked. This is the 'softer' JC we've seen in recent years, without that trademark Vertigo edge, however, there's still edge to be had, there's homage to previous creators all over the place, and maybe I just really wanted to like A) a new JC story and B) really wanted to like one of these Black Label books, because I dug this one. Three issues, doesn't overstay its welcome, is pretty humorous at times, and still captures some of the Black Magick Heart of the character. 

 

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Playlist:

Genghis Tron - Cloak of Love

Human Impact - Genetic (single)

The Soft Moon - Criminal

Helmet - Meantime

P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

Small Black - Duplex (single)

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon (pre-release single)

Small Black - Best Blues

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Arctic Monkeys - AM

16 - Dream Squasher

Calexico - The Black Light 

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Card:

Stop abruptly and switch gears. 

Martin Gore - Mandrill

New instrumental album from Depeche Mode's Martin Gore dropped last Friday on Mute. This is the first I'm hearing about it, but I am digging it! Order HERE.

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INTERVIEW:

As I mentioned last week, Chris Saunders and I recently had the chance to sit down with comics scribe and artist Jeremy Haun on The Horror Vision's A Most Horrible Library podcast. Available on all streaming platforms, our site, and youtube, it turned out to be a really interesting discussion:

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Watch:

I've been off work since Saturday afternoon. K and I took a "mental health week," which I for one needed very badly.  We've watched a lot of stuff in that time, which is all logged on my letterboxd. Two of the highlights were:

 

Much thanks to Mr. Brown on that one. Such a delightful film.

Terminal is a bit of a mess story-wise (although not enough to take away from the experience), but is absolutely gorgeous to look at. That usually isn't enough to get me on a film's side, but Simon Pegg goes a long way, and the obvious Guy Ritchie love helps more than it hurts. Ms. Robbie is pretty great in this one, too (as she usually is).

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Playlist:

Let's do something different. Let me take you back to last February when I wrote in these pages how I'd received a Golden Ticket from Relapse Records. This was a random win, based on my pre-ordering of Steve Moore's OST for the 2019 Joe Begos film Bliss. The contest was held to commemorate Relapse Records' 30th Anniversary, so needless to say, there's been a ton of Relapse bands in my playlist of late, as I slowly work my way through all this glorious vinyl. 

Razor - Armed and Dangerous

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Portishead - Dummy

Valkeyrie - Fear

Zombi - 2020

Boris and Merzbow - 2R0I2P0

Bangles - Different Light

16 - Dream Squasher

Nothing - The Great Dismal

Helmet - Meantime

Human Impact - Eponymous

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Dream Division - The Devil Rides Out

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

The Blueflowers - Relapse EP

The Blueflowers - Circus on Fire

Raspberry Bulbs - Before the Age of Mirrors

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Card:

Such an appropriate card, as I will be returning to work this morning after five days off and, as management, need to deal with two employees in a considerably more severe disciplinary fashion than I am used to. Enforcing common sense makes me salty, so I will have to keep my more... robust approach to the language in check.

Genghis Tron's Dream Weapon

Wow. I haven't really checked in on Genghis Tron since 2005's Cloak of Love EP, when I fell in love with the track "Arms," putting it on a bunch of mixtapes (ie CDs) and playlists in the early days of iTunes. After only a handful of records in the 00s and nothing since 2008's Board Up the House, Tron is back and have a new record coming March 19, on Relapse Records! Pre-order Dream Weapon HERE.

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Watch:

Okay. Wandavision was trying my patience up to and into the third episode, but as of last night's? SOLD.

The same way my favorite X-Men team will always be the Australian hide-out 8-piece of Storm, Havoc, Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, Longshot, Dazzler, and pre-body shop Psylocke, the Avengers team that sticks in my head is from the same era:

It's not a stellar team, and I can't even say I was a huge fan of any of these characters at the time, but the impending 'End' of the team - very similar to Claremont's Dissolution and Rebirth arc in Uncanny X-Men at the time - coupled with the weird juxtaposition of knowing next to nothing about over half this team, made me interested as hell. Also, the fact that on the cover of Avengers 298 it appeared Dr. Druid was fighting Thor using a Zoid is what probably proved my impetus for picking the book up to begin with:

I digress, big time. However, that's the point. Seeing Monica Rambeau resurface in the hottest current Marvel franchise blows me away and just really makes me take a happy spiral down memory lane. Plus, Kat Dennings? YES PLEASE. Marvel, you have me really interested in seeing how this plays out.

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Playlist:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

CCR - Willy and the Poor Boys

Ministry - The Last Sucker

The Big Pink - Velvet (Single)

Mrs. Piss - Self Surgery

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh 

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Card:

I can't help but assume this is referring to the fact that we have had two days of glorious rain in LaLaLand and now that I will be off for the next five days, the sun will return and I will be unable to actually enjoy the weather. My folks back home will laugh at this, but the struggle for moisture and rain-soaked atmosphere is real. 

Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle - Anhedonia

 

Moments after finishing my first listen to Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou's entire new EP The Helm of Sorrow (I was holding out for my vinyl to arrive, but gave in), I log onto youtube and see the two Doom Goddess's have joined forces! Is Anhedonia a harbinger of a full-length to come?

I certainly hope so! In the meantime,  I'll play the hell out of this track, because it rules.

Buy from Sargent House HERE.

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READ:

A Most Horrible Library is the newest podcast under The Horror Vision umbrella, and my co-host Chris Saunders and I spent a good two hours last night on Zoom talking with comics writer/artist Jeremy Haun. Jeremy's recent book, The Red Mother, wrapped up with its twelfth issue, and I can tell you, it's fantastic. Especially if you're a Clive Barker or Dario Argento fan.

   

Jeremy is an extremely personable, and very interesting guy. He's a HUGE Horror fan - which endeared him to Chris and I immediately, and he has a bit of a mythology brewing that appears in a lot of what he writes. That mythology - the Four and Seven - also shows up in the short comic stories he publishes via his Patreon, which I subscribed to. Jeremy writes, draws, letters and inks these Haunthology books, and I'm super excited to read them because I'm a sucker for mythologies, and The Red Mother really made an impression on me. 

 

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Playlist:

Credence Clearwater Revival - Eponymous

Small Black - Best Blues

Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility (Pre-release single)

Tomahawk - Eponymous

Tomahawk - M.E.A.T. Single

The Jesus Lizard - Lash

The Jesus Lizard - Liar

The Soft Moon - Black Sabbath (Single)

The Soft Moon - Criminal 

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Boy Harsher - Country Girl Uncut

Cocksure - K.K.E.P. EP

exhalants - Atonement

Gwar - Scumdogs of the Universe

The Replacements - Tim

Small Black - Duplex (Single)

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Helm of Sorrow

The Bangles - A Different Light

Drab Majesty - Careless

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

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Card:

I'm writing this Thursday night and it's raining in LaLaLand. As you've no doubt heard me say before, that's pretty rare. I'm on New Retro New Wave tonight, splitting the decades between the 80s and the previous, jumping from The Bangles to Drab Majesty, to Deth Crux, all on vinyl. It's glorious, and I stop to have K try and take a photo of me standing in the rain with my Israeli Military issue gas mask, really just as an excuse to stand out in the rain for a while. When I come in, I draw this card.

I'm burned out from several insanely close COVID scares at work and all the stress that goes with them and the stupid fucking humans responsible. Luckily, by the time most of you read this, I'll be well into my Friday. Then I'll have a quick and painless (I hope) four hours on Saturday, and I'm off until Thursday. Five year anniversary with K on Monday, and three days to be even more of a Hermit than I already am. It will be glorious.

Small Black - Tampa

I had never heard Small Black before Heaven Is An Incubator posted about their upcoming album Cheap Dreams one day last week. Seeing the album cover, I KNEW this would be awesome, and it is. You can pre-order Cheap Dreams from Small Black's Bandcamp HERE; looks like there are a few copies of the 'Red Rain' variant left for the vinyl. "Tampa" is the B-side from lead single "Duplex", and both are killer tracks. And this album cover is haunting! 

I just want to walk into that scene and disappear.

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Watch:

We finished the first season of CBS's Evil on Netflix and here I am, thinking I can just subscribe to CBS All Access and see the second season, and WHOAH! Not out yet! 

WTF?!?

For a procedural, this show is NUTS, and it has some genuinely scary AF moments and Michael Emerson gives Paul Reiser's Burke from Aliens a run for his money in the slimy scumf&ck department.

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Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon (pre-release single)

Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs

Small Black - Duplex Single

The Bangles - Different Light

Credence Clearwater Revival - Eponymous

Drab Majesty - Careless

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Card:

Sudden change. I feel a touch hesitant about this.