Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Set Galactus's Hiding Mask Aflame!!!


A little Wino and his friends in The Obsessed to start our day. This tracks slams; love it!




NCBD:

My picks for this NCBD; another slow week, but that's fine with me. Quality of quantity, right?


Loving this series. The throwback to the excesses of 70s and 80s rock gods is always welcome these days. Especially when the story gives us rock gods that worship Satan!!! Also, although the story is slightly obvious in some regards, insofar as to where it's going, the overall big picture of what that will mean is delightfully vague. 


I didn't read the first two issues of the Sins of Sinister series Nightcrawlers, however, being that this is the final issue before the closing Sins of Sinister: Dominion one-shot brings the sub-series to a close, and being that I've grown to actually really dig this series, I thought I'd pick this up. Who knows? Maybe I'll grab those first two issues eventually, too. Either way, seeing Galactus's burning face behind Mother Righteous totally sold me on this "A" cover.

That's one of the really cool things about these Marvel "possible future" stories - the degree to which the creators can totally fuck with everyone and everything. I feel as though it used to be, at the very least, every possible future would have Logan in it. Not this time. And although I doubt very much we'll actually see a Galactus flambé in this issue, just the fact that they could suggest this on the cover makes me feel like a kid again.




Watch:

 
After reading about Scott Walker's upcoming film The Tank on Bloody Disgusting a few days ago, I'm intrigued. Reviewer Meagan Navarro very specifically states, "So much about Walker’s narrative structure and stylistic choices evoke ’80s creature features," (Read Meagan's full review HERE). That very much makes me take the possibility of shortcomings aside and want to see this flick. I think back to James Wan's Malignant a few years back - it took a good thirty or so minutes of laughing at that film's shortcomings before I got what Wan was doing - he made a 70s Giallo, and went so far as to build in the associated shortcomings from that particular style/era of film. This 'authenticity or bust' aesthetic we've seen in recent years - I could argue Psycho Goreman has this to a degree as well - is fascinating to me; a real breath of fresh air. I love the idea of filmmakers saying, "It's not enough to just add synthetic VHS tracking lines to your film" - the equivalent of the "vinyl" audio effect that adds pops and crackles to an audio track - "you have to be true to the essence of what we think of when we think of those films!"

Anyway, I'm none of the theatres in my area are playing The Tank - Clarksville's Regal is pretty great, but it's not that great - so I can't wait to watch this on April 25th (thereabouts) when it lands!




Playlist:

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
CCR - Cosmo's Factory
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Kyss - ...  And the Circus Leaves Town
The Sword - Warp Riders
Bill Dogget and His Combo - All His Hits
            


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


In order to bring a project to completion, first emotional matters must be transformed into something useful through an act of Will.

Direct commentary on the process of writing. Well, the adage fits with any artistic endeavor, I suppose, but I'm applying it directly to my own process, which has begun to mutate for the better thanks to two separate but concurrent events. The first was Jonathan Grimm's three-day jaunt out to our new home. The guy is a self-made success with his art, and it's inspiring beyond almost anything I've encountered in some time. Maybe ever. The second came in the form of some thoughts on writing in one of the more recent This Is Horror Newsletters (which you can sign up for HERE and which is totally worth your time for the interviews alone, if not the contemplations of craft that sometimes come burrowed inside the missives).

What's that have to do with today's Pull? Well now sheriff, I don't rightly know. Pulls are not always straightforward. In fact, they're never as on the nose as my quick interpretations might make them appear. There's a lot of gooey ambiguity in the way they interact with the subconscious, and sometimes, you just contemplate the cards and see what associations they lead you to. Piecing it together - if you do - might take considerably more time. Hopefully, in the meantime, you've arrived at something useful. Like I just did.



Tuesday, April 18, 2023

The Boogeyman's Milk Leg

 

Man, this track takes me places. Some of those places are imaginary, and some are memory-laden ephemera from the early 2000s. Despite being released in 2013 - the year Mr. Brown sent me this record that's taken ten years to fully gestate an appreciation for - something here really reminds me of the particular era of my life circa 2000-2004. I think it's because my first real exposure to jazz-tinted metal came during that time when my friend Hammerstock turned me onto Cynic's brilliant 1993 album Focus. Whatever the case, I played Habitual Levitations a lot in the year or two surrounding my exposure to it, but haven't really visited since. Turns out, it fits like a warm glove.




Watch:

I didn't watch the first trailer for Rob Savage's upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman, and I'm not watching this one, but as usual, I'm posting it here for posterity's sake:

 

Nothing but good feedback surrounding this one, so I'll definitely be catching it in the theatre. I'm still searching for a new film to really scare the hell out of me; I know Evil Dead Rise is going to be an ordeal, or at least I hope it's going to be, but if this can accompany follow that as a genuine bone-shaking scary movie, then 2023 will be looking pretty good at the halfway point when The Boogeyman arrives on June 2nd!
 



Read:

Although I won't be watching the trailer for The Boogeyman, I'm digging out the first edition copy of Stephen King's Night Shift I found at a Las Vegas thrift store ten years ago or so and re-read the story it's based on - also called The Boogeyman - for the first time in quite a few years. 


This was a FIND for sure, and the first time I'd read really early King. Although I discovered him in High School with The Gunslinger, then read a handful of his other novels, I never dug into his early short stories until I found this. I'm less than 100 pages from the end of King's newest novel, Fairy Tale, but I should be able to slip this quick re-read in just to prime my excitement for Savage's new adaptation.




Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
The Sword - Warp Riders
Kyuss - ... And the Circus Leaves Town
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)
Godflesh - Nero EP
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
            


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


To arrive at the best decision, and truly be fair and uncompromised by emotion, you have to be honest about your emotions toward the situation. I have no idea what this is in reference to at the moment, so I will do what I always do in situations like these - leave the spread on my desk today, so it's always in front of me. Sometimes that's the best way to unlock something you're stumped on.
 


Monday, April 17, 2023

Someone Put Something In My Drink

 

This past Saturday, April 15th was the 22nd anniversary of Joey Ramone's death, and I totally missed it. I guess I never before put together that Pete Steele died on 4/14 and Joey Ramone on 4/15. I'm a considerably bigger Type O fan than I am a Ramones fan but talk about legendary. Here's one of my favorite Ramones songs in tribute. 



Playlist:

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Holy Serpent - Endless
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Church of the Cosmic Skull - Is Satan Real?
The Bridge City Sinners - Here's to the Devil
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit Vol. 1
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
 


Saturday, April 15, 2023

Telekinetic Yetis & True Detectives

 

Telekinetic Yeti's guitar tone is beyond anything I've ever heard before. I've been throwing last year's Primordial on here and there for the last year or so, and I dug it, but something happened this past week and I just can't live without it now. 

That tone!

I've recently begun playing guitar again after an almost eight-year hiatus, and as I run scales and modes and just generally fall in love with the instrument again, I'm listening to a lot of music specifically for tone. There's Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and this. Those are probably my three favorites at the moment. 

I've also discovered the band's 2017 album Abominable.  You can hear how they hadn't quite dialed in their tone and sound just yet, however, that doesn't prevent it from being another awesome long player! 

You can order Telekinetic Yeti's monolithic slab of music from their Bandcamp HERE, or, if you want vinyl like me, from Tee Pee Records HERE.




Watch:

True Detective always revs me up and then ends up disappointing on some level. I mean, Season One is among my all-time favorite things, but I hate the ending. Hasn't stopped me from watching it nearly ten times since it came out, though. Season Two... well, let's never speak of that again. And I loved Season Three but it also ended so soft and convienent that it robbed some of the thunder.  


This new Season, however, has Iss López as show runner and, if I heard correctly, director. If you've seen López's film Tigers Are Not Afraid, you probably understand why I have such high expectations for this. Kind of the same high expectations I had for Season Three when they originally announced Jeremy Saunier would be series director. Saunier had some form of disagreement with showrunner/creator Nic Pizzolato (surprise), and bowed out after only two episodes. Pizzolato handled most of the directing for the remaining episodes, and I thought he did a mostly fantastic job, but I still wonder what that season would have been like if Saunier had been aboard for the entire thing.

Anyway, no hard date on the premier yet, but I'm betting August or October. Either way, I'm in.
 


Play:

I had not played video games since the original NES - well, I did my fair share of DDR back in the early aughts - until I came across Puppet Combo and his game Glass Staircase. The game had a very Argento vibe, and Puppet Combo's love of 80s Horror VHS struck me as so endearing I couldn't say no. That was five or so years ago and although I bought it, I couldn't really figure out how to play it effectively on my computer. I was happy just to support them, though.

Fast forward to my birthday last year and I saw that Puppet Combo's newest game at the time, Nun Massacre, was getting a Switch release. I plunked down the money and ordered a Switch, bought the game, but ultimately became frustrated adjusting to its play peccadilloes and kinda forgot about it in my obsession with Game Kitchen's Blasphemous.

 

This is the newest game, and I guess it's only available on Steam, which is something I'll most likely never tap into. Still, wanted to spread the word and share this awesome trailer.
 



Playlist:

Metallica - 72 Seasons
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Telekinetic Yeti - Abominable
Church of the Cosmic Skull - Is Satan Real?
The Sword - Age of Winters
High on Fire - Death is this Communion
The Sword - Gods of the Earth
The Sword - Warp Rider
Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master
Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child
         



Thursday, April 13, 2023

Dreaming of the Demeter

 

New music from Nabihah Iqbal's upcoming second record, Dreamer, out April 28th on Ninja Tune. You can pre-order HERE.




Watch:

Though I hated Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark enough that it made me kind of retroactively dislike André Øvredal's previous flicks I'd seen and liked, I recognize my tendency to overreact to things like this. 
 
 
 
My reaction to Scary Stories isn't that different than, say, the reaction I had when I read the first issue of Frank Miller's All-Star Batman and Robin, way back in 2005. Shortly after reading that, I gave half my Sin City issues. I don't really regret that, but it's extreme, I'll admit. In recognizing that, I've been meaning to rewatch The Autopsy of Jane Doe again, and now that the trailer for his The Last Voyage of the Demeter has landed, well, I am cautiously optimistic!

This is apparently an adaptation of a single chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula - how cool is that? 




Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Valley of the Sun - The Chariot
Mars Red Sky - Eponymous
The Sword - Age of Winters
The Sword - Gods of the Earth
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Steve Earle - J.T.
Lord Buffalo - Tohu Wa Bohu
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Clutch - Blast Tyrant
Intronaut - Habitual Levitations
         


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
 


 


Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me

 

Ghost gave us an Easter surprise by announcing a new five-song, all-covers EP due out May 18th on Loma Vista Records. You can pre-order HERE.

These between album EPs the band releases are generally hit or miss with me; I love 2013's All You Need is Ghost - not so much with 2016's Popestar, which had one of my favorite tracks from the band (Square Hammer) and a bunch of fascinating covers, most of which I just don't ever feel the need to go back to that often (although their "Missionary Man" is admittedly pretty cool). One thing Popestar confirmed for me is that Tobias Forge's ambitions are boundless, and I'm fairly certain at some point in his future, he will craft a Musical that will catapult him into the even further reaches of success.

Juxtaposed against Popestar, Phantomine feels like it may split the difference; while I'm not familiar with "Hanging Around" by The Stranglers, I'm excited as hell to hear them do Television's "See No Evil,"  Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera," not to mention Tina Turner's 80s Thunderdome anthem "We Don't Need Another Hero." I just don't know what to expect that one to sound like.

There's also a video for this track up on youtube, however, it's age-restricted and only viewable HERE.
 



NCBD:

My haul for NCBD today:

I am SO excited about the return of James Tynion's Nightmare Country. The first arc made it into my Favorite Comics of 2022 list, and I have no doubt this new arc will continue the glory. The closest thing I've seen to having Sandman back again.


My growing fondness for Jeff Lemire's work prompted me to pick up the first issue of this new Phantom Road series and I thought it a great set-up for a Horror story.


Hot on the heels of my Sins of Sinister reread, the final issue of Storm and the Brotherhood will hopefully prove another total mindfuck.


X-Men Vs The Brood. 'Nuff said!
 



Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Church of the Cosmic Skull - Is Satan Real?
Ghost - Jesus He Knows Me (single)
Kyuss - ...And the Circus Leaves Town
Holy Serpent - Endless
Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master
            


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


I'm having a lot of trouble interpreting this pull. More than I have perhaps ever had on any other. So I'm going to have to dig a bit. First glance, it feels like an acknowledgment that sacrifice can bring you to the threshold of change, but you have to be careful about the changes you make. 
 


Cold Sweats in the Basement, Baby!

 

Jonathan Grimm drove down a few days ago and we had a fantastic extended weekend drinking beer, watching movies and bullshitting. Grimm is definitely a stabilizing force in my life, not to mention a huge influence, and his visit really supercharged my creativity again. We capped the evening yesterday driving to Nashville and seeing Lord Buffalo, Valley of the Sun and Church of the Cosmic Skull at the awesome Basement East. It feels fortuitous indeed that the first show I see in my new state was at this venue, because I loved it. Basement East reminds me a lot of my favorite venue back in LaLaLand, Echo Park's Echoplex. I'll be keeping their calendar firmly in mind from here out, as it's the kind of venue I'll take pretty much any excuse to return to, again and again.




Watch:


Curious to see this entire film. I love the idea of teenagers playing with a makeshift "Hand of Glory," though I didn't watch enough of the trailer to see if it actually came off a "hanged murderer." Makes me want to dig back into some of my Arcana and see what Eliphas Levi or, perhaps more appropriately, Alan Moore might have to say about how stringent the cocktail that produces that particular Magickal accoutrement is.
 



Playlist:

Etta James - (Third Album)
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
Locrian - Return to Annihilation
Locrian - New Catastrophism
Godflesh - Nero EP
Behemoth - The Satanist
Etta James - The Second Time Around
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light
Various Artists - Jonathan Grimm's Stoner/Doom Spotify Playlist
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Holy Serpent - Endless
Bettye LaVatte - Scene of the Crime
Pigs x 7 - Viscreals
            


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Where this might normally make me think some form of unpleasant emotional change is jump up the road, I instantly read it as a lifting of my already generally unpleasant emotional state that dug in during my extended stay in LaLaLand and has left me off-kilter and unusually anxious since.
 


Saturday, April 8, 2023

RIP Vivian Trimble

 

Easily my favorite Luscious Jackson track from an album that is almost all 'favorite tracks.' 

I haven't even thought of this group in years; hearing about Vivian Trimble's death at age 59 immediately made me want to hear this song.




Watch:

Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor's Cartoon Kayfabe has quickly become one of my favorite shows on youtube. I've spent a lot of time in the past two weeks hanging out listening to them interview a wide spectrum of creators, and when I woke up this morning and saw Richard Corben is their latest, I got pretty damn excited.

 

A living legend, Corben is. Super cool to hear him talk with these guys about the industry and what makes him "him."



Playlist:

Bettye LaVette - Let Me Down Easy: Bettye LaVette in Memphis
Godflesh
Godflesh - Post Self
Crystal Castles - II
Luscious Jackson - Fever In Fever Out
         



Friday, April 7, 2023

Immoral & All Seeing

 

I still find myself thinking about Wayne Shorter's recent passing. I'm by no means a huge fan; I say this not to distance myself from his work, but to respect those out there who are much more committed. Truth is, I started dabbling in Jazz when I was still a teenager thanks to Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch, but I was way more into it in my twenties. Since moving, I've gotten back into many artists I've been away from for a while, but I still don't spin enough Jazz to be considered anything more than a passing fan. Yet, this music echoes inside me in a way nothing else does. I don't feel like a have a lot of room in my life for it, which is unfortunate, but Jazz is music that requires attention to appreciate, and as I've aged and the world has fallen apart and injected me with its anxiety, I have less and less attention; it's something I fight for on a daily basis. 

As I said upon Mr. Shorter's passing, there is something in his work - whether solo or his collaborations with Miles Davis - that sounds like a conjuring to me. It puts me in a very particular headspace, and in reflecting on his passing, I'm wondering if there is anyone making music today that might have the same effect. Or if the "Jazz Ritual" sound that Shorter and Davis - especially on Bitches Brew, Sorcerer and The All Seeing Eye - summoned into this world is all but gone now. I feel that's likely, as our world is very different from the one where this music was composed. If there were "Jazz Spirits" or "Demons" that came to this plane as a result, where are they now?




Watch:

Wow. Now, this is an interesting idea:

 

I subscribed to the channel immediately, and plan on giving this a full go. I was pretty stoked just watching along for a moment, as the music, different voices and sound FX told the story.
          



Read:

Re-reading Sins of Sinister from the beginning now, because my memory sucks. Also reading again because this week's Immoral X-Men really stayed with me.
            

The thing with the core of the X-Books now, and especially this Event and this issue in particular, is these are no longer superhero books. These are hardcore SciFi. I've talked about my love/hate with genre here before - I don't really go for big, tropey works like Space Opera or High Fantasy, primarily because I just feel like much of those corners of genre just repeat (and expand in some cases; credit where it's due) the most influential work that precedes them. I know there are a million people out there who would tell me I'm wrong, and that's fine. But I avoid those traditional genre lanes and look for stories that do their own thing. By the time we get to the events in Immoral X-Men #3, we're essentially in a deep-space salvage SciFi realm.


Deep-Space Salvage, or DSS for short, is the name I've finally arrived at in my head for those stories that pull me back into the kind of home-brewed, SciFi prevalent in 1980's Hobby Shops and indie comic books. Think TSR and old-school Guardians of the Galaxy. Think comics written by Bill Mantlo. A deep-space enclave where everything is old, rusted, down-and-out. It's the future but nothing is new, progress has flatlined or reversed, and everything is falling apart. That's where Kieron Gillen has taken us in Sins of Sinister.

There are no superheroes here - that's reserved for the regular Monthly X-Book, which anchors the line to its original intent. Instead, here and in X-Men; Red, S.W.O.R.D. before it, and partially at work in Immortal X-Men, we have very meticulous, long-game genre stories that branch off into many different styles and territory, and S.o.S. is definitely DSS.


By the time we arrive at this last panel, page three of Immoral #3, you can see the filth and decay. You can also see a monstrously sized Exodus, now something much more than the mutant zealot we all know and love so well. This issue reminded me A LOT of Daniel Warren Johnson's Beta Ray Bill mini-series from a few years back, and like that series, Sins of Sinister is surprising me with how much I'm enjoying it overall, especially when I didn't read the entire thing (I have not been buying that third title, Nightcrawlers, although I'm thinking about going back and picking it up) or like everything I've read. 




Playlist:

Gang Starr - Hard to Earn
Godflesh - Slavestate EP
Godflesh - Pure
Godflesh - Cold World EP
Godflesh - Love and Hate
QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork
High On Fire - Surrounded By Thieves
Lustmord - Dark Matter
Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye
Miles Davis - Live at the Filmore West
            


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Circumstances drift and Change rears its head. It will be tempting to interpret this change as negative, but the reminder in the cards today, me thinks, is that interpretation dictates the positive/negative aspect of change. Change is always good in some respects, it can just be mighty difficult to remember and 'see' that. 
 


Thursday, April 6, 2023

New Godflesh Single!

 
The first single from Godflesh's forthcoming album Purge. LOOOOOVE that sample from Gang Star's "Brainstorm"! I pre-ordered this about a month ago when I first saw the announcement, you can follow suit if you go HERE.




Watch:

Good news! Holy Spider is coming to Netflix (of all places) tomorrow, April 7th! 

 

I've wanted to see this since last year's Beyondfest, and after missing it there, my friend and colleague-in-casting Professor John Trafton has spoken about it at length, so I'm pretty excited to finally catch this one. 
 


Read:

Speaking of John Trafton, his new book is up for pre-order from Wayne State University Press:


If you've read any of the essays John has up on his website JohnTrafton.com, you'll understand why I'm pretty excited to read this. Although I left LaLaLand behind, the mystique of that early Twentieth Century City of the Stars remains. Movie-made Los Angeles will no doubt explore and expound on that era in ways I've yet to ascertain.           




Playlist:

Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Shrinebuilder - Eponymous
Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Massive Attack - 100th Window
Spotlights - Seance EP
Godflesh - Hymns 
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
INXS - Kick        




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Transformation from collaboration leads to an increase Earthly assets.

 


Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Bloody Knuckles in Green Hell

 

A little High on Fire to start your day. From 2012's De Vermis Mysteriis.




NCBD:

Here's my NCBD haul. Man, since I slimmed down the number of titles I buy, I really don't miss anything I cut, however, some weeks I just miss comics.


First up, I've been waiting for this 13th issue of Ghost Rider for a few months now. Danny Ketch will always be my favorite Ghost Rider, and to have him back as, apparently, part of the Weapon Plus program just makes me salivate with the possibilities.


The final issue of Sins of Sinister's Immoral X-Men. Definitely curious to see what year 1000 looks like.


SO much love in my heart for Saga, and I did not expect the possibility brought up at the end of issue 62, so we'll see where this goes. 




Read:

I finally read Jeff Lemire and Doub Mahnke's Swamp Thing: Green Hell. I dug this one about as much as I can dig a DC book (I don't know why my prejudice against DC continues to escalate, but it does). 

The thing I liked best about Green Hell was the way it sort of acted as a final chapter for the storylines Lemire and Scott Snyder established in the original, 2012-2013 New 52 Swamp Thing and Animal Man books. I read Snyder's run on Swamp Thing and actually quite liked it, and while I jumped off when Lemire came on and didn't read his Animal Man, I followed those books from afar and understood what they were doing.


I also quote liked what they did with John Constantine in this one, although this tendency to fall back repeatedly on having him barter his soul to the devil for favors got old after the first time, and repeated use with it really just undermines the gravity of Garth Ennis' Dangerous Habits, still one of the greatest stories ever told with the character.     


In all, I'll probably revisit this one at some point; the oversized Black Label books are a joy to read when they are worth reading. To me, that's not very often, so it's nice to have one I enjoyed.
       


Playlist:

SQÜRL - Silver Haze (pre-release singles)
Bexley - Eponymous
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
Jon Clearly - Dyna-Mite
Steve Earle - J.T.
            


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Settling into a work routine will lead to a transformation that brings breakthrough.
 



Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Nick Fury Vs. SQÜRL


More new music from SQÜRL's upcoming album Silver Haze, out May 5th on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.




Watch:

I've been pretty meh about all things Marvel, but I really want to watch this one:

 
I never read the comic storyline Secret Invasion, however, I like the idea A LOT and remember how Bendis would drop scenes that pointed to it years before it happened (remember Rick Jones showing up yelling about Skrulls being everywhere?). What I did not expect from this, and what totally hooked me with this trailer is how the Secret Invasion series draws inspiration from the 1989 prestige format, six-issue series Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D. - one of my favorite Marvel Comics stories EVER. Just by virtue of Fury facing most of this threat essentially alone (insofar as no major hero costars, or at least as we can ascertain from this trailer), it makes sense the creators would draw from that series, and knowing that makes me very excited.




Playlist:

Hum - Downward is Heaven
David Bowie - Heroes
Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession
Shrinebuilder - Eponymous
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Viscerals
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper
Eagulls - Eponymous




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


I intended to do a three-card Pull, however, this one jumped out of the deck at me, and I thought I'd concentrate on that because, in a nutshell, Motivation - a form of Will - has been lacking and this is a nice cue to get my ass back in gear. I have been writing almost daily, however, not in increments of time and attention that would gather me the momentum I need to get back on track. I'll fix that today.
 


Sunday, April 2, 2023

Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl

 

If you're watching Yellowjackets, you know why I'm posting this. I feel like I totally forgot about this song and Tori Amos in general. I was never a HUGE fan, but respect the hell out of her, and this song has always blown me away.




Watch:

30 Coins season two!

 

I'll admit - I'm still pretty raw at HOBO MAX for canceling Raised By Wolves instead of just doing that third, final season, and that makes me a bit trepidatious about any show on there having a continuing storyline from season to season. I'll also admit that based on how 30 Coins season one ended, I didn't foresee more to the story at all. I mean, obviously, the final images left things open for more, but it didn't seem essential. Which makes me feel better about another season of the show. I mean, I want as much of this as they'll give me, but I also don't want a dangling cliffhanger. 

ALL of that aside, can I get a hell yeah for this trailer? Can't wait.
 



Playlist:

Bettye LaVette - The Scene of the Crime
Damon - From the Attic
Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Cristobal Tapia de Veer - Smile OST
Mortician - House By the Cemetery EP
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss (single)
QOTSA - Smooth Sailing (single)
Screaming Females - Desire Pathway
Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl (single)




Card:

From Missi's Raven Deck:


In this particular moment, this card is a reminder to focus on the world outside myself, because sometimes, that interior space just gets too cyclical and can cause a lot of anxiety,




Saturday, April 1, 2023

Inertia Creeps


I had an unplanned Massive Attack day yesterday and it felt great! For a band - and in the case of Mezzanine specifically - an album that was long-time daily obsessions, it'd been a while since I dove into their murky sonic depths. Felt amazing to return to it and have it feel exactly the same.

Then, later yesterday (I typed this Friday during work), K and I sat down to Yellowjackets and lo and behold - "Inertia Creeps"! This and the use of Radiohead's "Climbing the Walls" - easily my favorite track from OK Computer - more than made up for having to hear papa couch in Season 2 Episode 1.




Watch:

A new Season of Slasher??? Oh wow - check this out:

 

I ADORE the 2021 Flesh & Blood season that Shudder picked up, and now the same creative team is turning their creative energies to Victorian England and what looks like a Jack The Ripper copycat? Sign me up!

Slasher: Ripper starts with two episodes next Thursday, so that means the back half of my week is a Slasher/Yellowjackets combo! 
             



Playlist:

Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Liars - Drum's Not Dead
Motörhead - 1916
         



Friday, March 31, 2023

Metallica - 72 Seasons

 

Four for fucking four. Wow. To quote Mr. Brown, "I can't believe I'm looking forward to a new Metallica album." You and me both, brother. You and me both.




Watch:

Until last night, I'd never watched Anthony DiBlasi's 2014 film Last Shift, but I've suspected for a while that the reasons I avoided this film would turn out to be an unfair dismissal on my part. You can't always judge a flick by its Netflix thumbnail, but that's exactly what I did with Last Shift (and The Taking of Deborah Logan, which I still haven't seen) for the entirety of its stint on the mega streamer. Which I feel like was years. When Last Shift dropped off and started making the rounds on other streamers, people I know started telling me how good it was. I didn't listen. This wasn't a staunch, "Fuck that movie" stance, I just never got around to it, and the few times I almost did,  the image of that stupid thumbnail resurfaced and I went on to something else.
        

Last month, when I read about the imminent release of DiBlasi's update on the film, I became intrigued. How many filmmakers get the chance and perhaps more interestingly use the chance to remake one of their early movies that is as well received by the fans as Last Shift? Also, to have marketing Push behind both iterations? Not many. With this in mind, I finally sat down and watched Last Shift. Halfway through, I paused it and bought a ticket to go see Malum next Monday.

Last Shift is great for what DiBlasi and crew had to work with, which admittedly is a lot more than some independent filmmakers have, but still not a helluva lot. Other than the building - which is no small asset - you can see how DiBlasi's ingenuity kicks in and sustains this one. Well, his ingenuity and a stellar performance by lead Juliana Harkavy. The film begins to feel a skosh tired as the scare tactics continue without manifesting actual physical threats, but when those do come, they're pretty damn good. All in all, a solid three stars and a heart on my Letterbxd, and what's more, watching Last Shift unlocked a thrill at imagining what we might be in store for at Malum

Also of note: I had previously thought Ari Aster's Hereditary was the first film to stray from the traditional "devil" nomenclature and move into the Goetia for inspiration concerning its demonic puppet master, specifically Paimon, who my old band Darkness Brings the Cold had at least one song evoking. Obviously not the case after watching Last Shift, and I'll be digging around today looking for any interview with DiBlasi concerning where he drew his inspiration from. I rather like the idea of introducing the entities from Goetia into fiction; not sure anyone will ever do it as well as Alan Moore and JHWIII did in Promethea, but moving outside the tired scope of the Christianity-defined 'devil' can only lead to interesting results.

Then again, maybe not. I remember walking out of 2008's Quarantine, the remake of REC (which I'd not seen at the time) where the filmmakers changed the story from demonic possession as an outbreak to, ah, a terrorist-created super-strain of rabies and telling everyone in earshot, "Damn, I wish Hollywood would just bring Possession movies back." Two or three years later, in the wake of all the Last Exorcism movies, I felt like I'd been Monkey Pawed, as in, be careful what you wish for, you might get it and it might suck.
 



Playlist:

Danko Jones - We Sweat Blood
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Bettye Lavette - The Scene of the Crime
T. Rex - The Slider
High on Fire - Surrounded By Thieves
Metallica - 72 Seasons (pre-release singles)
Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm
Kx5, deadmau5 & Kaskade - Kx5 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 12/10/22
Bettye LaVette - Let Me Down Easy: Bettye LaVette in Memphis
        


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


A similar Pull to the previous one I did with The Bound Deck; I think the idea that's coming across here is it takes Will and Dedicaton to achieve physical goals, and although I've gotten a bit better after the post-oral surgery manic episode that gripped me for about a week, I've still not re-anchored myself.




Wednesday, March 29, 2023

New Music From Bettye Lavette

 
From the forthcoming album Lavette!, out June 16th via Jay Vee Records. Read more about the announcement HERE on Brooklyn Vegan.

Back in 2012, I really did not know who Betty Lavette was. My x and I were in San Francisco for about a week, and caught Ms. Lavette at the old Yoshi's location; she was on tour for her Thankful and Thoughtful record. Amazing show, but it's been quite some time since she has been on my radar. Gotta change that! 




News:

It's been a while, but a new edition of the Every Day (Is Halloween) Newsletter goes out this morning at 8:30 AM. Included therein is a pretty fantastic playlist, if I do say so myself. I recently bowed out of a friend's Spotify Premium Family account, so I totally understand if you're not hip to the format - I prefer Apple Music for almost everything, however, if there's one thing Spotify does better it's playlists.


If you're interested in signing up, I don't share your info, I don't send often enough to be a nuisance, and I try to add value to my readers' lives by turning them onto as much awesome stuff as possible!



Read:

Here's another thing I don't think I'd ever heard of before: Alan Moore and Alan Davis's Captain Britain comic from 1983? 


Leave it to the Cartoonist Kayfabe guys - that's Ed "Red Room" Piskor and Jim "Street Angel" Rugg, two of the most talented artists working in comics today. I subscribed to their channel (HERE) a while back and have really been getting an education from it; HIGHLY recommend you check Cartoonist Kayfabe out if you're into the art and history of comics!




Watch:

Not watching this new Dead Ringers trailer, but I'll post it here for posterity's sake.


 

All episodes drop on April 21st, and I'm curious as hell, especially after reading on Bloody Disgusting that Sean Durkin directed the first two episodes. I'm a big fan of his film Martha Marcy May Marlene, so I'm excited to see how his particular aesthetic might meld with Cronenbergian themes/images.
 


Playlist:

Damone - From the Attic
Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer (pre-release singles)
Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession
Deadguy - Fixation On A Coworker
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Brainiac - The Predator Nominate
Ghost - Prequelle
The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That
High On Fire - Surrounded By Thieves
Massive Attack - 100th Window
Bettye Lavette - The Scene of the Crime
    


Card:

Back to Missi's Raven Deck for today's Pull:


Change: Just accept it. "Words of wisdom Lloyd. Words. Of. Wisdom."




Tuesday, March 28, 2023

New Music From Nabihah Iqbal!!!


Somewhere back in 2017, my good friend and Horror Vision cohost Ray turned me on to Nabihah Iqbal's album Weighing of the Heart. This one blew me away, and I've been following her ever since, waiting for a new album. A few years ago Nabihah spoke on social media about how the studio space she had been using to record that follow-up was broken into and, if memory serves, all her music and equipment was either stolen or trashed. 

My heart broke, but nearly as much as it must have for her.

Now, in spite of the adversity, Dreamer is poised to drop on April 28th courtesy of Ninja Tune, and you can pre-order it HERE. Also, it appears she is touring the U.S., and I am going to try like hell to make it to the Empty Bottle show in Chicago on June 7th, so check those dates by you!




NCBD:

A super light NCBD this week, which is great, as it makes up for all the damn action figures I ordered last week! Hahaha. Here's my single, solitary pick:


I find it interesting to note that, according to the five-issue paradigm SIKTC has demonstrated on all previous trade collections, this new issue would be the fifth and final issue in Volume 5. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the current storyline; in fact, I'm all but positive that won't be the case. Remember - the Archer's Peak storyline lasted for three trades, and now that the action has shifted to Tribulation, New Mexico, things feel way too involved for everything to pan out this early. That said, it's also interesting to note that, over on League of Geeks, where there should be a button to see the next issue in the series, there is not one. I am by no means suggesting this is the end of the series, but Tynion and crew are definitely playing close to their chest, which, considering how visceral this series is, and how absolutely none of the characters feel safe, may be interpreted in a number of alarming ways.
            



Playlist:

Spotlights - Seance EP
The Darts - Snake Oil
Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth
Savages - Silence Yourself
The Cure - Wish
dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer (pre-release singles)
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Blank Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Ministry - Animositisomina
 



Card:

Thoth is calling me back again:


This card 100% describes the feelings I've been having the last few days. I managed to force myself out to sit at my writing spot yesterday. Very little actual writing was accomplished, but as a wise man once told me, even if you don't write anything, you sit there for the duration and stare at the screen - it's more than a lot of people manage. Hopefully, today will be better. 




Screaming Females - Brass Bell

 
It's about time I gave some love to this new Screaming Females record that came out on Don Giovanni Records back in February. Desire Pathway is, as a whole, utterly fantastic, and you can hear that represented as such in no better place than album opener "Brass Bell."




Play:

So, my fascination with Super Cyborg really resonated for about two lonely nights in my LaLaLand hotel room. During that time I managed to beat the game on easy, then on difficult, and finished about another 90% of it on hard. Hadn't played again really until this morning, after my older cat Sweetie woke me up around 3:00 AM and I couldn't get back to sleep. During this time, I finished off that final level and watched the 'expanded' ending - which really only included one extra image. Still cool, and I definitely enjoyed the game. So much so that upon finishing it I immediately fired up another side-scrolling shooter - Big Sugar's Valfaris!


My Horror Vision cohost Butcher mentioned this one to me a year or so ago - in fact, I believe he talked about it on an episode of the show! After hearing Butcher's review, I nabbed a two-pack on sale at the online Nintendo shop that included Valfaris and another heavy metal-fueled side-scroller named Blood, which I haven't been very successful with, thus far. 
 



Playlist:

Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm
Lamp of Murmur - Punishment and Devotion
Brainiac - The Predator Nominate
Calderum - Lord Cramridor
White Hex - Heat EP
Deadguy - Work Ethic EP
The Darts - I Live You But Not Like That
The Bengals - All Over the Place




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
 

This is pretty much a picture-perfect view of things since I returned from LaLaLand. I flew home last Monday, 3/20, and because of the time difference, an 11:55 AM flight put me on the ground after 5:00 PM. A forty-minute rideshare later, I was home. The next day I had off work to have a tooth removed - a 20+-year-old crown had, in my dentist's words, either been put on the wrong way back when or become compromised on a minuscule level, so the tooth beneath had literally rotted out, leaving only dental filler and roots. Following this, I still have a hole in my lower right jaw that requires care and attention, not to mention strategically defined eating. So I spent the first week in L.A. walking nearly 70 miles, barely eating and stressed out, the second marginally decreased on all those things, and then part of the first week home on a liquid or "mushy" diet. Something about all of this has wreaked unimaginable havoc with my entire nervous system. I CRAVE carbs of all kinds. I can't stop buying things online (impulse control=0). I have no concentration. My sleep is a joke worthy of the Joker: two nights ago I slept 9 hours. Last night barely 3. My situation and temperament have changed (Wheel), affecting my entire person (Ten of Cups - the Fiction Suit). It will require a possible rededication ritual - a kind of personal calibration - to get my shit together. 
 


Monday, March 27, 2023

Tension Breaker, Had to be Done!!!


After watching Carl Reiner's 1987 Summer School last night for the first time in a long time, I woke up this morning with the desire to throw on Iron Maiden's seminal Live After Death. There may be no band/album that evokes the 80s for me more than this one. 

I used to think characters like this - although not specifically these two, because they were almost role models to me when I saw this film back around the time it would have first hit VHS or TV, circa 1988-1989; I would have been between 11 and 13 - were nothing more than adult creators not understanding youth culture and thus embarrassing themselves in their approximation. I still think that's the case in some 80s flicks (and beyond, but it was way more noticeable to me as a burgeoning teenager in the 80s), but not all. Chainsaw and Dave are great examples of hyperbole, and man, do they still resonate, especially as an adult obsessed with Horror flicks!

Also of note, and which I would not have been aware of during any other viewing, is foreign exchange student Anna played by Fabiana Udenio from Bride of Reanimator and Shawnee Smith, from the awesome Blob remake just a year later and, eventually, Saw franchise fame. 




Watch:

While scrolling on Shudder last night, I realized Robert Fuest's 1970 And Soon the Darkness hit the streamer at some point in the last month or so. I knew nothing about this one, other than having heard it covered on Colors of the Dark podcast, and boy was a delighted with the experience this film offers.


I have a spoiler-free review up on Letterbxd HERE, but if you haven't the time/gumption to indulge me on that, let me just say now that the restoration on this one is outstanding. Truly a gorgeous and loving attention to detail in bringing a film from 1969 to 2023 audiences.
 



Playlist:

Unto Others - Mana
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Damone - From the Attic
Screaming Females - Desire Pathway
Cristobal Tapia de Veer - Smile OST
Fear - I Am A Doctor (single, Live for the Record)
        



Card:

My two-week stint in LA with only my mini Thoth has stoked a taste for this deck once more, so I decided to Pull from my regular Thoth Deck for this Monday morning:


Princess - or what I'm learning to also read as "Page" - of Swords. Going to be an uphill struggle today, huh? I believe it, as I sleep an amazing 9.25 hours from Saturday into Sunday, and a paltry 3 hours and 7 minutes last night.  




Saturday, March 25, 2023

Poison Ruïn's Harvest


I am completely new to Philidelphia punks Poison Ruïn, but when this video for Härvest, their upcoming album on Relapse Records showed up in my feed, it kinda blew my mind. We've seen "blackened" versions of nearly everything else (although I'd love to find a band that calls itself "blackened adult contemporary"), why not Punk? And with Poison Ruïn's anti-establishment ethos, we are talking about actual Punk here, insofar as politically minded, not just three-chord monte. Anyway, I dig this quite a bit. Härvest drops April 14th, and you can pre-order it HERE.




Watch:

Yellowjackets is back, and K and I are finishing up a rewatch of the first season today and hitting episode one of season two later today. Can't freakin' wait!


If you didn't hear it before and are interested, here's the speculation episode we did on The Horror Vision days before the season one finale. Many of our theories/projections were proven erroneous or obsolete by that finale, but not all of them.
 



Plastic:

Oh, come on! Stop taking my money!

            

The Universal monsters were, like many from my generation, my introduction to "Horror." My girlfriend also has a passion for the Universals, and we kind of bring it out in one another, to the point that one year for our anniversary, I bought us Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein shirts from Fright Rags. 

As Bobby Fingers says in that most recent video, when you find the one, never let them go!

Anyway, my die-hard passion starts and stops with Frank and this fella right here, who is actually probably my favorite of the Universals. Tack on the Lovecraftian twist in the lore that writers like Alan Moore and Stephen Murphy have reintroduced to popular culture over the last few decades, and The Creature continues to captivate me. So you can imagine my joy/chagrin when Jonathan Grimm messaged me with the details about this lovely figure Neca announced. I'm preordering mine from Entertainment Earth, but I'll need to do something really nice for my wallet one day soon.




Playlist:

Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre