If you're a regular reader of this page, you'll know that a couple years ago I began sifting through a lot of the 80s rock that I'd either ignored or abandoned after adolescence. I called the project "Recontextualizing the 80s" and meant it very much in earnest. I was a kid in the 80s but became a young adult in the 90s, and as many of us know, part of that process is breaking from the things you liked as a child. Right, because at 16, 17, 18 or even into your 20s, you're such an adult. More like, fake it 'til you make it.
One thing I've learned as I entered and defeated my thirties is there's really no such thing as 'adults' as they are advertised to children. The only difference between a kid and an adult is if you accept responsibility for your own actions and everything that follows through from that. Of course, I might just be saying that because I'm a nearly 46-year-old dude who still buys transformers and geeks out over Marvel Comics, but you know, I think I'm right. As a bartender, I saw a lot of adults who acted way more like children and thus was born my theory.
But I'm trailing off on a tide of tangents.
Anyway, the 90s served as the crystallization and final stand of the indie rock scenes that began in the 80s, and with their coalescing into the larger arena of pop culture, a complete refusal to acknowledge any music containing artifice. This was great at the time, but if you're even the littlest bit self-aware, you eventually realize that not every band or musician has to have a straight-lipped, white-knuckle chokehold on "TOTAL INTEGRITY OR DIE". Sometimes it's good just to have fun, and yeah, all the cocaine and mascara of the 80s metal scene pretty much tells you at a glance that's all a lot of those bands cared about. Sometimes that sucks, and sometimes it's okay and carries with it a certain kind of integrity in itself. So for the next seven entries of this blog, I'm going to post tracks that I've either rediscovered a fondness for, finally admitted a fondness for, or have discovered a fondness for.
Get ready, and please, don't throw any Pavement keychains at me. That shit hurts and I never really got into them in the first place.
We start with a song and an album by the 80s Prince of Darkness himself that I used to never like, even back when I liked Ozzy. With the exception of "A Shot in the Dark" - which I believe I've posted in these pages on several previous occasions - I never took a liking to The Ultimate Sin. A couple years ago, however, I decided to give it another shot and guess what? I totally dig every damn track on this record.
Watch:
Now, as if to fly in the face of everything in the previous section, I spent part of last weekend doing a mini Danny Boyle marathon. First up, my first (finally) viewing of The Beach.
I'm a big fan of Alex Garland's novel, and although Boyle's adaptation changed quite a bit from the book, I still dug it, especially the always delightful Robert Carlyle as Daffy.
Next, the original Trainspotting, which I've lost track of my number of viewings for and still adore.
Last and perhaps most bafflingly, I had my first-ever viewing of T2 Trainspotting, the sequel.
I really should have seen this one a long time ago, but never got around to it, always kind of bummed I missed its microscopic theatrical run. I suppose some of the blame lay with the fact that, since I've forced myself to stay away from reading Welsh's last few novels - despite the fact that I still count him in my top three authors of all time - I also moved away from all the other areas of his work. I'm pretty sure at the beginning of every year I tell myself and my readers that this is the year I return to reading Welsh, and finally acquire and burn through all those novels I've missed since I read Skag Boys, but the truth is, while I'm still working on writing a genre series, the idea of drifting back into Welsh's prose may alter my own voice in a way that makes these next two books even more impossible than they already sometimes feel.
Whatever.
T2 bears pretty much no resemblance to Welsh's Porno - which wasn't so much a sequel to Trainspotting as it was a sequel to both that and my favorite of his novel, Glue. But Boyle had no time to introduce that other book's key players - Juice Terry, NSIGN Ewart, wee Gally, or Billy Birrell, and as such, opted to make this more of a sequel to his previous film. Which was the smart move, even if it forced this film to hinge around the confrontation between Renton and Begbie, which does not disappoint, even if the rest of the flick - as enjoyable as it is, especially visually - feels a might rudderless at times.
Regardless of any of that, I still really enjoyed this one and will definitely revisit again, especially after I finally do get back on the Welsh Horse (pun intended but not to be read in any capacity other than reading the man's literature).
NCBD:
Marvel is basically stealing my wallet this week:
I've had no interest in the current Death of Doctor Strange storyline until this Black Knight tie-in one-shot. That's because it's Si Spurrier picking up directly from last year's Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade mini-series.
I'd imagine the cover to this one intimates a big reveal. Hell, I hadn't even stopped drooling over the art in this book or the total 70s-Marvel-inspired storyline long enough to wonder who was under the Masked Raider's mask. They have me curious now, though, but just to be clear - and because I almost never say this - I'm here first and foremost for the art. All revelations are just icing on the cake.
So Bruce Banner is essentially exploring the multiverse with the Hulk as a rocket ship? Yeah, it sounds daft, but again, it comes out with a distinctly 70s flavor in Donny Cates and Ryan "Invincible" Ottley's hands, and after picking up the first two issues on a whim, I'm digging Hulk quite a bit.
Let's interrupt the Marvel fanfare with the final issue of Maw, which so far, has been one of the best original concept Horror Minis I've read in years, ranking right up there with Autumnal, Black Stars Above, and The Plot. Great company to keep, and creators Jude Ellison S. Doyle and A.L. Kaplan have totally earned it.
Mr. Brown clued me in to the fact that the Moon Knight trailer dropped a few days ago, and after watching it, I'm pretty excited. The final shot of the costume looks a bit goofy, in the way Daredevil's did when they first introduced it at the end of the first season of the Netflix show from a few years back, but based on how much this one appears to lean into the mental illness aspects of Marc Spector, I'm more than happy to give it a chance.
Speaking of the show's apparent handling of Dissociative Identity Disorder, how many SJWs do you think are going to take to the Twittersphere to cry afoul? Let's hope that doesn't affect anything the show has planned.
I can't wait to sit down and re-read Lemire and Sorrentino's Cold War Psychic Animal WTF series in a tight burst. There's a lot I feel slipping through the cracks month-to-month here, and I'd imagine the big picture these cats are painting will be that much more effective when consumed uninterrupted.
This is where, if you've been paying attention for the last 9 months or so, I say, "I'm just picking up the number one," and then go on to read this new She-Hulk series monthly. Well, maybe that will be the case. I'm not sure I've ever read a comic with She-Hulk in it before. I mean, it seems like, with the number of comics I've read in my life, I would have had to have read something featuring Jen Walters, but if I did, I don't remember it. Still, I've always been aware of the character, and never particularly interested. Or, maybe the advance hype behind writer Rainbow Rowell and Rogê Antônio's new series will surprise me.
Everything about this cover for the new Silver Surfer: Rebirth commands me to buy this book.
I probably will not buy both covers for The Silver Coin #8 - I'll probably go with the Michael Walsh cover below because, hey, body parts in a bloody mop bucket, am I right? Still, the above alt cover by What's The Furthest Place From Here rock god Tyler Boss is pretty f'ing cool, too.
Number 125. Another landmark in the best reboot EVER.
And finally, here's one I really don't want to buy, but might:
It surprises me to no end that in falling back in love with the X-Men, years of oversaturation have left Logan off my radar and in the "Mutants I least want to see in a comic" list. So why even consider this? Fan inertia I suppose, and the hopes that Benjamin Percy might do something that restores my love of the ol' Canucklehead.
Playlist:
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
David Bowie - Station to Station
David Bowie - Let's Dance
Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep - Mountain High
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Alio Die and Lorenzo Montaná - The Threshold of Beauty
Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Van Wissem - The Mystery of Heaven
Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight (single)
The Ronettes - Presenting the Ronettes
Pat Benatar - In the Heat of the Night
Donny McCaslin - Beyond Now
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
Alio Die and Remco Helbers - The Garland of Dissolution
Seriously one of the most iconic voices of all time. So iconic, she makes me love an Eddie Money song.
Watch:
The sting of the anniversary of David Bowie's death and now Ronnie Spector's passing was traversed by some really good news (thankfully, that's too many bummers to deal with in one week) - Ti West is returning with a new movie!!!
I am SO happy about this. West has directed a number of TV episodes (his two on Amazon's Them were incredible), but hasn't done a film since 2016's In A Valley of Violence (which is on Netflix and SO worth your time). West is easily one of the best directors working today, in my opinion, and I'm hoping having A24 distribute this new flick will A) put it in theatres for longer than a weekend, and B) herald his return to filmmaking.
NCBD:
Not New Comic Book Day, exactly, but here's what I've picked up over the last few weeks via eBay and back issue bins:
I'd read the first issue of Hunger back when it first came out, then never continued. I've always wanted to go back and read the entire thing, though, because I'm something of a Galactus fan, even though I haven't really read many stories with him. Maybe that's the Unicron fanboy in me, I don't know. There's a lot about the Fantastic Four's history and rogues gallery that I retain something of an armchair interest in, but never really do anything about. I'm glad I bought this, even if just for the image of Galactus tearing through a hole in the fabric of the 616 Universe and entering the Ultimate Universe
Next up, I started reading The Low Low Woods when it first dropped back in early 2020, but never acquired all the issues. I finally solved that. Here's the bad ass cover I just scored for the fifth issue:
I'd put a poster of that on my wall. It's gorgeous. The book itself has an amazing premise - girls go missing in a small rural town where coal fires have burned for decades, then return missing time. The execution leaves a little bit to be desired, but overall I dig it. And for whatever reason, I wanted the issues of this one instead of the collected edition.
And I finally replaced the original Dark Horse Aliens Vs Predator that went missing at some point over the last few years. No idea where these went, and even though my Horror Vision cohost gifted me a beautiful hardback collection of this one, I had to put my hands back on the original floppies I bought as they came out monthly (or maybe bi-monthly) back in 1990.
Playlist:
John Coltrane - Blue Train
The Outfield - Play Deep
Alio Die and Lorenzo Montaná - The Threshold of Beauty
Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Un Hiver En Plein Été
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Crumb - Ice Melt
Zombi - Liquid Crystal
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
Card:
Definite stagnation in creative areas at the moment, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel...
My friend and Horror Vision cohost Tori recently sent this track my way, and of course, once you hit play and hear the bassline that starts and runs through the song, you'll get why I immediately went back and looked up several records by Great Falls. This particular track can be found on the Split Single the band put out with Thou. Makes sense, right?
Tough as nails, this. Love when those guitars come in just past the one-minute mark.
Here's a link to the Great Falls Bandcamp, where you can find more of their music. Also, here's a link to the label that put that split out, Hell Comes Home Records. Some great stuff on there, including the album Trust Fall by Xnoybis, which I stumbled upon while writing this and really quite liked.
Cast:
The new episode of The Horror Vision went up (a day late - thanks Wordpress, you fuck), and it's a full-on, ALL SPOILERS discussion about the first nine episodes of Yellowjackets, just in time to prepare us all for this week's season finale.
I haven't had this much fun with a show since Twin Peaks. No shit.
NCBD:
Another NCBD! It's fairly light again, and my addiction has grown, so I might do what I've done the last two weeks and order some stuff online to accompany these. I'll post my recent eBay acquisitions on another day, for now, here's what I'll be bringing home from the shop tomorrow:
This one's been a fun ride so far. I'm really starting to love anything that has Reed Richards as a villain, 'cuz, you know, that's pretty much where he's been headed all along if you really think about it.
I haven't read the Joe Hill novella this series is adapting, but it's in Strange Weather, a collection of five novellas. I've read the first three over the last few months, and really dug them, so I'll pick this up and hold off until I get around to reading the story first.
Jeff Lemire's Mazebook comes to a close and it looks as though we're getting our minotaur. This book has been super cool - you can see how personal it is to the author, which makes it feel weighty, but shot-through with a mystery that has really been something to watch unfold through Lemire's art.
I am straight-up LOVING this newest series by Michael Rosenberg and Tyler Boss. What's the Furthest Place From Here? has become one of my most anticipated books each month.
Playlist:
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
David Bowie - Let's Dance
David Bowie - Station to Station
Ghost of Vroom - Ghost of Vroom 1
Great Falls/Thou - Split (single)
Xnoybis - Trust Fall
Card:
A change in seasons or cycles. This is a HUGE point for me at the moment, as I have to migrate my entire podcasting setup from one service to another. It's nerve-wracking, but not nearly as much as every interaction I've had for every episode I've done through Wordpress for the last year. I should have changed this paradigm - this world - a long time ago.
I'll never forget it. I had just staged an intervention with my eventually-to-be ex-wife. Her parents flew out from the Midwest and the three of them were staying with me, in what used to be our home (and thankfully was now just mine). Her stuff was stacked all over my living room, and I'd graciously given up my bed so everyone else could have a good night's sleep after their long ordeal and drive out of the high desert. In other words, my life appeared to be in a shambles, but in reality, the shambles was well and truly behind me. She was probably at her lowest point, but I was on an upswing. I'd had a fabulous weekend. I had prospects for a social life. I had friends. I sat on the chaise lounge watching Chef starring John Favreau with my outgoing father-in-law (nice guy), trading texts and emails with prospective new love interests, friends, laughing and drinking beer well into the night, even though I had to be up at 4:30 AM for work.
Cut to when my first alarm went off. I was sleeping on the couch, my phone was beside me on the floor. I snatched it up as soon as I heard that tell-tale wake-up chime and silenced it. This would have been before I switched to an iPhone, so I was in Android country. Not sure how that factors, other than it's a detail I remember, so it fills the scene in. A moment later the phone buzzed again - too soon to have out-distanced my snooze - and when I picked it up, I saw a text from my friend Tori. It said, simply:
Dude. David Bowie died.
I felt at that moment that all the progress I'd made, everything, was for naught. David Bowie taught me how to age - how to grow older with grace. How to navigate life's unending menagerie of madness with tact. I'd just exhibited this lesson in the two-and-a-half years it took my marriage to end, to get to the point where I was, about to send my ex and her family off into the negative zone outside my own peripheral existence. And now, my teacher was dead.
Fuck.
Six years later, we return to the same stage - it's Sunday night while I'm typing this, the long-delayed love of my life curled up on the sofa by my side, Black Star playing on the stereo. I lost three cats, gained one, started a bunch of podcasts, ended one big one, gained friends, lost some, turned my back on others. Life continues to throw its curve balls at my head, and I duck and pop back up and smile.
Just like David Bowie taught me.
Watch:
Playlist:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Tennis System - Technicolor Blind
Tennis System - Lovesick
Tennis System - Bitter (Single)
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Depeche Mode - A Question of Lust EP
Boy Harsher - Careful
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Beach House - Once Twice Melody (Disc 1)
Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Un Hiver En Plein Été
I'm not normally a huge fan of Chris Bachalo's art, but this cover is creepy AF. I've been a little disappointed in this Darkhold series, mainly because it wasn't a series at all, but an Alpha Book - which I dug - followed by a series of one-shot character books, i.e. The Darkhold: Spider-Man, The Darkhold: Iron Man, etcetera, none of which I was ever going to read. That means tomorrow I'm returning to the tale for the Omega issue, not really expecting much. I really thought there would be more Doom in this one. I guess I'll have to try another book dropping this week to get the Doom fix I was hoping for when I picked up the Alpha issue two months ago. That book?
I'm not following the Wastelanders books, but again, I've been in the mood for some Dr. Doom, so hopefully this will satisfy the craving.
OH MY GOD I CAN'T WAIT TO READ THIS FINAL ISSUE OF INFERNO!!!
Here I was thinking that there were going to be five issues of this series, and instead, Hickman brings his run on X-Men to a close this week with Inferno #4. I was late to this and I'm bummed it's ending, so I can only imagine how people who have been reading the entire time feel. I guess the big question is, will I stay on after. Well, the newest X-Men book - I feature issue 6 farther down on this list - is a keeper for the time being, but what about anything else? I mean, I'm not currently reading any of the other titles, and several are ending, but there's been solicitations for at least two books slated to launch over the next few weeks. X-Men: Red is one I'll definitely give a chance to, simply because it's being billed as a sequel to the recently ended S.W.O.R.D. book, which I read and loved. But I'm on the fence with Immortal X-Men, which although is said to focus on all the agendas in the mutant ruling body known as The Quiet Council, features Kieron Gillen as writer. I loved what I read of Gillen's The Wicked and the Divine, but ultimately it didn't hold me. Also, his recent take on The Eternals was definitely NOT for me, and his plans for the X-Men kinda sound similar.
We'll see. The trap I'm trying to avoid here is what I have long referred to as "fan inertia," where you dig a book so much, you keep reading it even after the writer who made you love it leaves.
Often, not a good idea at all.
Another badass cover. This second arc of Two Moons has really been throwing curveballs, can't wait to see where the story goes next.
I really have no idea what to expect from this book anymore, so I'm happy to just go with the flow.
Cast:
The latest issue of A Most Horrible Library went up on all podcast platforms yesterday. In it, Chris Saunders and I discuss, among other things, Jeff Lemire and Doug Mahnke's Swamp Thing: Green Hell, which I absolutely LOVED.
Good to see a return to all-out Horror for a Swamp Thing tale.
Playlist:
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Disassociation
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
I've never really been able to keep track of this Chino Moreno side project, but I guess that's because it kind of gets lost amidst Deftones, Palms, Team Sleep and probably at least one other project I'm blanking on. Good thing I'm subscribed to their youtube feed - this popped up and I LOVE it. Not sure if there's a forthcoming album, but hopefully there will be something substantial because I think another reason I drop the ball on these guys is the only other 'full length' is a comp of singles - I think.
Watch:
I watched a bunch of flicks over the holiday, but the two I'd like to briefly discuss now are the new Paul Thomas Anderson film Licorice Pizza and Park Chan-Wook's seminal revenge classic Old Boy.
Licorice Pizza is another beautiful film by PTA, and being as it serves as Cooper Hoffman's first film, the introduction of someone I think we'll be seeing a lot more of in the coming years.
There's a lot of talk that this film is racist because of a certain pair of scenes featuring an obnoxious restauranteur who speaks to his Japanese wives in a culturally insensitive manner. Calling this film racist because of that is like calling Schindler's List a pro-Nazi film - complete snowflake lunacy. Both scenes are funny, that's the point, but there's no one slighted here, so sorry. They are ridiculous, funny, and ultimately not going to hurt anyone's feelings that aren't looking to have their feelings hurt. Saying this is offensive would be like me saying I find State of Grace's portrayal of the Irish stereotypical and offensive. The point is, the character is based on an actual person, and the character is a dildo. Did I laugh? Yes. Do I feel bad? No. We're going to need tougher hides to get through the coming years, folks. I think we all know racism when we see it - this isn't that.
Aside from that, all the hype around Bradley Cooper's portrayal of Jon Peters is well-deserved. This is also comical, and perhaps some will see it as a slight against the hyper-masculine? There's an under-represented group amidst the SJWs, so if you're looking to cause a ruckus, have at.
Also, SO great to see Tom Waits again, in any capacity. His recent years of radio silence in all mediums had me concerned, but he's just as spry as he always has been in terms of performance, and with Sean Penn in his scene, the two are a sheer pleasure to watch.
Next, it'd been well over a decade since the last time I watched Old Boy. Long enough, in fact, for its effect to have waned in my memory. Well, this re-watch brought the film back up to the prestige it held with me upon my first viewing; this is an EPIC! The camera work is fantastic and the fight choreography is stunning. I'm pretty much betting the 'hammer' fight scene was the inspiration behind the now legendary "Hallway" fight scene in the first episode of Netflix's Daredevil show, and probably a hundred other fight scenes I'm unaware of or simply unable to conjure at the moment.
Playlist:
Miami Horror - Illumination
Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane - Eponymous
Great Falls - The Fever Shed
Old Time Relijun - Musicking
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Algiers - Eponymous
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
The Police - Synchronicity
The Afghan Whigs - 1965
Fleet Foxes - A Very Lonely Solstice
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)
Burzum - Filosofem
Card:
I have finally struck a balance between two disparate projects, and I believe this is a nod to my continued success in this regard.
Hawkeye put this on my radar, and I could literally listen to it all day. Depeche Mode has always been one of those bands that confound me in a way. I've loved pretty much all of their singles since I was a kid and first heard People Are People, but whenever I try to get into an entire album, they always fall flat for me and I just go back to the singles. Because of this, I am completely unfamiliar with large swathes of their discography, and A Question of Lust falls into that category.
Watch:
Speaking of Hawkeye, I finally caught up by binging all six episodes in 24 hours. I absolutely loved this one.
I am SO excited for the street-level aspect of the MCU that we're seeing here and which, I believe, will now continue in the Spider-Man series. Plus, I WANT A NEW SERIES WITH CHARLIE COX'S DAREDEVIL!
Ahem. Apologies, but that's been building for quite some time. As excited as I was for the third season of the Netflix Daredevil show to do Bullseye, I never bothered watching it because the series had been canceled by the time it arrived. Now, I can go back and rewatch seasons one and two, then go right into three.
NCBD:
A decidedly light NCBD, and I'm going to try to keep it that way.
I tried reading that Ram V Swamp Thing series that began at the beginning of the year, but I just couldn't hang with it. This, however, is Jeff Lemire and Doug Mahnke in prestige, Black Label format. Can't be missed.
The fifth and final issue of the recent Kang The Conqueror series ended a bit ambiguously, but I guess that's what happens when your narrative twists in and out of time like Kang's does. Either way, there were moments of absolute, 70s Marvel brilliance in it (issue 4 especially), and I'm a card-carrying Kang fan, so there's no way I'm missing whatever this is.
Another new Stray Dogs comic! This is only a two-issue reexamination of the events of the first series from different angles (how do I know that? Listen to Chris Sanders, Adam Marcus and I interview the writer Tony Fleecs HERE), but any Stray Dogs is great Stray Dogs, so I'm in. Oh yeah, and here's another variant cover I'll never score.
While we're on the topic of comics, I realized I left off two HUGE entries to my favorite comics of 2021 list, so I've added them as addendums on the original post.
Playlist:
Fleet Foxes - A Very Lonely Solstice
Fleet Foxes - Eponymous
John Coltrane - Blue Trane
The Hacker - Rêves Mecaniques
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
Eldovar - A Story of Light and Darkness
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk
Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST
Card:
A vital engagement with a project, new or old, head-on.
Perfectly describes my Tuesday, let's see if I can't carry that into today.
2021 was a weird year for music. I spent A LOT of time on albums that came out in previous years. So much so, I wasn't entirely certain I could pick ten records that had a huge impact on me. Some of these have ended up here despite my having not fully ingested them yet. That's okay, I always know the special ones the moment I hear them (for the most part).
Here then, are my ten favorite records released this year:
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten: This is the album I've been waiting for Jerry Cantrell to make for years, and its arrival serves as the beginning of a new role for him in relation to popular music. Cantrell has always been a sage, but previously he's been reluctant about it. Brighten shows him aging into this new position in a way so as to best take advantage of the role as a songwriter and musician. Brighten is big and filled with living reflections, a man looking behind him to better inform his path into the future. The songs hit hard, because, despite a decade between us, I can completely relate. Aging is rough, but you have to take what you can from it, use your mistakes and triumphs to make the future better.
Also, bringing Greg Puciato into the fold earns JC enormous goodwill in my book.
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs: Spare Ribs hit at exactly the right time, in my opinion, to make it both extremely poignant socially and serve as the most idealized presentation of Sleaford Mods' sound to date (I say that at the risk of having Williamson dismiss my assessment as 'cuntish'). These guys have a social perspective that previously made their minimalist approach to songwriting feel a lot bigger than it might have seemed at first glance. With Spare Ribs, the music has caught up.
Ministry: Moral Hygiene: I'm not entirely sure when the last time a Ministry album made it onto one of my year-end lists. Maybe 2007's The Last Sucker, because, while I've liked most of the band's releases, I haven't loved any since Sucker. Moral Hygiene, however, is a return to form for Uncle Al and his cohorts. This makes perfect sense, as who else could you expect to chronicle the shitstorm of the last two years into pulse-pounding, cynical Industrial Metal that perfectly represents where we are in relation to our planet and technology?
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments: How so many fans turned their backs on James Kent for this album blows my mind because to me, Lustful Sacraments is an evolution for him as an artist that makes 100% perfect sense. It's deep, layered with nuance and knows when to take huge swings - all of which land. Incorporating more traditional "band" elements is no doubt a turn-off to some old-school fans who want another Dangerous Days. For myself, I'm happy to go wherever Kent's artistic wanderlust takes him.
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim: Double albums almost never work, yet they remain a rite of passage for bands. Hushed and Grim is probably the most solid of the like to come out in three decades. There's no excess here, nothing is superfluous. Each of the songs helps to expand Mastodon's sound, while as an overall cycle, all fifteen tracks form a solid, coherent whole. Not a feat easily mastered, but then, Mastodon has become one of the best bands around.
Odonis Odonis - Spectrums: After 2016's Post Plague ranked as my number one album that year, I've not even really liked anything Odonis Odonis has done since. Spectrums is a return to form for the group, running the line between industrial and electro in a way that feels unique to this particular band, thrilling and a little crazy.
Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk: Filmmaker Adam Egypt Mortimer conjures another dimension with The Obelisk. This is unlike anything else I've ever heard, and for that reason alone, it garners my praise. But moving beyond the stunning adventure of the album's occult soundscapes, everything about the textures AEM uses to construct this fit into my favorite types of music. Sparse beats, analog synth, brooding overtones and flitting, ghostly flourishes of voices and who knows what the hell else. This is another one of those records that opens a door I feel as though I've been waiting my entire life to step through.
Eldovar: A Story of Darkness and Light: I stumbled across this record by the combined talents of Elder and Kadavar with no previous knowledge of either band's work. I think I may have listened to an Elder album at some point, but I remember nothing about that previous engagement with them. This then was a complete surprise. From the opening notes of the record, an immediate comparison to Led Zeppelin came to me. Not because of the sound of the music, per se, but because of the timeless aesthetic applied here. I believe this is what some folks took to calling "Proto Metal" back in the 2010s, and despite a certain lack of clarity in that as a descriptor, I get it. There's also a healthy dose of Acid Rock. But the emphasis on melody, specifically intertwining vocal melodies, gives this one an ephemeral quality that is not nearly as important to rock musicians today as it was in the afterglow of the 60s. Eldovar seems to have learned the lesson of that far-gone era and transported it to the present day with this album.
King Woman - Celestial Blues: King Woman has always been about balancing Doom aesthetics with a certain Post-Metal reserve, and on Celestial Blues, they perfect it. As brutal as it is reflective, this one drones, beats, cuts, and soars in a way that I defy anyone to put a definitive genre tag on. The haunting overtures that ebb and flow throughout the course of the album's nine tracks show songwriting on a level that bodes great things from this band in the future.
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay: A last-minute HOLY FUCK moment thanks to Heaven is an Incubator's 2021 list, it makes perfect sense this would hit me as hard as it did seeing as Algiers owned both my 2015 and 2017 with their first two albums. Mondo Decay is a strange, sick record that's filled with sonic homage while still playing as an extremely new, unique sound. When I listen to this, I feel like I'm honing in on it from between white noise transmissions, like Harlan and Maxx finding the pirate transmissions in Video Drome. This is clandestine and important, and a little scary in the best possible ways.
On December 10th, Robin Pecknold, better known as Fleet Foxes, released A Very Lonely Solstice. A live stream performed December 21th, 2020 St. Ann at the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. Beautifully recorded to take full advantage of the particular acoustic properties of the church, this is one for the ages. Pecknold's voice and guitar playing have nearly become one instrument in my brain.
Watch:
I finally made it around to watching Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn on Shudder.
I first saw this one nearly twenty years ago now, back when my friend Dennis and I used to watch Horror movies a couple times a week after work at the hotel where I was the nighttime bartender and he was the Chef. Surprisingly, I did not remember how great this flick is. Easily the pinnacle of the 'Backwoods Slasher' sub-genre.
That's two films directed by Jeff Lieberman that have left me amazed the man didn't do more. NOT a criticism at all. But Blue Sunshine floored me the first time I saw it, and rewatching Dawn really made an impact. Might it be time to rewatch Satan's Little Helper?
Maybe next year.
Playlist:
Miami Horror - Illumination
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs
King Woman - Celestial Static
John Coltrane - Blue Train
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies EP
Kadavar and Elder - Eldovar: A Story of Darkness and Light
Fleet Foxes - A Very Lonely Solstice
The Kunts - Boris Johnson Is Still A Fucking Cunt
Universally Estranged - Reared Up in Spectral Predation
I haven't done a list of my favorite comic book moments since... hell, maybe 2013 or 2014? This year, however, I read more comics than I have in years, and a lot of them were current books. I guess that makes it only natural I should have a list of stand-out moments, especially because there were so many great ones.
Deadly Class came back this year (had it been gone since 2020?) and boy did it make a splash upon return! Every issue has been a jaw-dropper, but the first one back - issue 45 - had one of the most cinematic openings to any comic I've ever read, and it culminated with this, the first indication that we had left the 80s behind and done a serious time jump. Easily my favorite single issue of any comic book this year.
Of course I knew who Beta Ray Bill was prior to this year, but really only by name and visage. But Daniel Warren Johnson? I had never heard of the man. And then Beta Ray Bill came out and I fell in love with DWJ's take on this left-of-center Marvel character, essentially a Thor knock-off. No disrespect intended, as I'd rather read a Bill story any day of the week than hang with Thor. Anyway, this series really traffics in the 80s pulp-gamer-Sci-Fi I remember from comics and Role Playing and movies back during my childhood, when the future was always filled with a lot of junk and technology was a more varied, messy thing. DWJ's wheelhouse lives in the same neighborhood as Richard Stanley's Hardware, Hobby Shop TSR bric-a-brac, and comic scribe Bill Mantlo's world-bending take on Jack Kirby's aesthetic. And it's fucking GLORIOUS.
I've been raving about the current iteration of Eastman and Laird's classic TMNT for the last 120+ issues, but really, this year and the "Mutant Town" storyline have been a foray into uncharted territory that just couldn't have been done better. Where the first 100 or so issues of the series - while taking great strides to expand the classic story and characters into new directions - were still based in a continuity fans were already somewhat familiar with (Shredder, Utroms, Nutrinos, Stockman, etc), the last few years have moved the book and the characters into entirely new territory, culminating with the formation of an entirely new setting amidst the fallout from Hob's Mutant Bomb. There are obvious similarities to real-world events of the last few years, but without being heavy-handed about it, and as always, the characters and their continued evolution comes first.
A Horror anthology that just doesn't stop - and shouldn't for that matter - The Silver Coin is endlessly inventive, thought-provoking and endearing in the stand alone story approach to a massive concept that can go literally anywhere it wants to - the future, the past, summer camps, casinos, dive bars. Anywhere. This was my introduction to the art and storytelling of Michael Walsh, and it locked me in as a forever fan.
Heartfelt, creepy, and just plain wonderful. I can't say enough good things about this book that, at first glance appears to be one thing masquerading as another, but really turned out to be a perfect thesis on why lovable cartoons like Disney makes are actually perfect vehicles for scary stories. Horror with the biggest of hearts.
My reintroduction to the X-books, and specifically, the brand new world Jonathan Hickman has crafted for them. When I picked this up, I didn't realize that Planet-sized literally meant, Planet-sized, as in the mutants terraform Mars, change its name to Arrako, and make it the Capitol of our Solar System. Everything about this X-era is huge, but this was just magnificent in its audacity. Audacity that Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz pull off with the perfect degree of assurance that makes it land. And from that landing, great things continue to spring.
Seven To Eternity ended this year, and whether the speculation that it was originally supposed to go a lot longer is accurate or not, I thought the series played out in a perfect series of acts that never once gave ground on its No Black and White, life is a Gray Area aesthetic that made my heart sing at its uncompromising nature. The Mud King will always live just under The Walking Dead's Negan as one of my all-time favorite 'villains' because neither character is actually a villain, but an amalgamation of complex choices based on a chronology that feeds into itself - to quote Boards of Canada, "the past inside the present."
And I loved that Rick Remender stuck the landing. Wow.
I came in late to Nick Spencer's run on Amazing Spider-man, and it was the first Spidey comic I'd read in decades. Also, picking up with issue 49 and carrying on until the conclusion of Spencer's run with issue 74, this is by far the most consecutive issues of a Spider-comic I've ever read. I've loved the old Webhead since the 80s when I'd buy issues here and there, jumping on story arcs like Kraven's Last Hunt, the Eddie Brock/Venom origin, and anything with the Hobgoblin. I'm not sure what drove me back into the character this past year, but I had a fantastic time following the last few acts of Spencer's run. And even if it was a bit bloated, and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending, overall, Amazing Spider-Man was one of my favorite comic experiences in 2021.
Addendum:
I totally forgot one: Sandman/Locke and Key: Hell and Gone
For a brief moment this year - well, okay, not really a brief moment because it took almost the entire year to complete the run - we got Neil Gaiman's Sandman back. Hell and Gone was both a return to everything I loved about that seminal series, but also, a grand new vision that united another favorite series. All written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez. It couldn't have been better if Dream himself had waved his pale appendages to conjure the story.
Crime comics just don't get any better than what comes from the desks of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and as if that weren't enough, with the Reckless series of HC Graphic Novels, they've perfected their craft even more. I LOVE these so much, and both entries that dropped in 2021 - Destroy All Monsters and Friend of the Devil - were fantastic.
