New music from Helmet! Holy smokes, thanks be to Mr. Brown for putting this one on my radar, because I've kind of fallen off Helmet the last few years. If their upcoming album Left is anything like this first single, we're in for a treat. Out November 10th on Earmusic, you can pre-order the vinyl HERE.
Watch:
The V/H/S series returns to Shudder on Friday, October 6th. Here's the trailer that dropped yesterday:
I find this series super hot and cold. The most recent entry, V/H/S/99, proved pretty polarizing for me; I really dug a few of the stories and didn't care for the rest. That said, I'm always game to see what gets included in these flicks, and often find directors just starting out (Chloe Okuno comes to mind).
Playlist:
Lustmord - Berlin
Walter Rizzati - House By The Cemetery OST
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Fen - Monuments to Absence
Helmet - Holiday (pre-release single)
Oracle:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Swords
• Eight of Cups
• XVIII The Moon
Balancing the Creative energies with the Sharp edge of Intellect yields emotional transformation on matters at this point, unrecognized or obscured.
No idea how to apply this one at the moment, but then I guess that's why it's 'unrecognized or obscured.' The Moon is a favorite of mine - it tends to cast light in dark corners. Digging a bit deeper, I have a notation in the Grimoire that says the following for the Eight of Cups:
"As advice - let it go. Don't cling to what's written."
Well now, that would seem to add some clarification, as I just performed a major overhaul on something in the book, had to get rid of about eight thousand words of 'what's written.' Didn't cling, so I'm on track. Still not sure how that fits in with the other cards at the moment, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled.
From the upcoming album Spine, out October 20th on Relapse Records. Pre-order Spine HERE.
I'm not 100% on this track yet; I've really liked Myrkur's previous records, however, there's something about the hook in this that feels borrowed from Madonna. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's rubbing at me a bit. I can't wait to hear the entire album when it's released in October.
NCBD:
Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:
No idea what this series 'is,' however, with classic Jean Grey a la X-Factor scribe Louise Simonson penning it, I'm in.
Newburn's return last month reminded me how much I dig Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips's street-level tale of a fixer who has - potentially at least - grown too big for his britches. Can't wait to see how the story continues to wind its way around Newburn - and his unweary assistant Emily's - throats.
The first issue of Tenement felt kind of like a gift; after a graphic novel (The Passageway) and a mini-series (Ten Thousand Black Feathers), we're finally getting a little more than just tone from Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's ambitious, sprawling Bone Orchard Mythos. Don't get me wrong, I love tone. I'm not a person that needs a plot in order to enjoy a well-written comic or novel. That said, there are gottasees set up in those two previous entries into this Mythosthat make me think the reveals will be INSANE, so I'm kind of chomping at the bit with this one. Tenement looks to be the chapter to finally drag some of that out into the light.
Watch:
A new trailer for Neon Release's upcoming It Lives Inside dropped yesterday.
Releasing in theatres on September 22nd, I have a pretty good feeling about this one. Just like the last trailer that dropped for this one, I only needed a moment before I turned it off and knew I'd be seeing it. Directed by relatively newcomer Bishal Dutta, there's a buzz around this one that reminds me a bit of the buzz for Talk to Me. Could be a really nice Autumn entry into the year's Horror.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Myrkur - Like Humans (single)
Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Card:
• Eight of Swords - Interference
• Prince of Wands
• Queen of Swords
I'm pretty tempted to read this in a very surface-level manner. I've got two big ideas, or influences, interrupted in the middle by Interference. I made some HUGE revelatory thinking about the novel yesterday, just some enormous stuff, but didn't write. I've got a couple days' worth of inertia from not writing while I was in Chicago for a wedding (drove in Friday, drove out Sunday, thus, I literally had no time to write). Also, I continue to experience what I can only classify as major anxiety primarily shaped around my parents' eventual move, so I've been treating that with edibles. I don't write when I'm high, so the anxiety is an Interference while large ideas hang in the balance.
Rewatched Brian De Palma's Body Double last week in preparation for the deep-dive discussion we just did over on The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror. Man, I love this film. Body Double has to be my favorite De Palma film, and one of the things I love about it is the use of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax, a song I've dug since I first heard it as a child. Went looking for the video today, wondering if it might match up with the scene that features it in the film, but somehow it's actually a lot weirder than that! I must have seen this at some point in the 80s, but I definitely didn't remember what an odd spectacle Director Bernard Rose (yes, THAT Bernard Rose!!!) creates for the song.
You can listen to that Body Double discussion on Apple Podcasts HERE, Spotify HERE, or pretty much anywhere else you stream podcasts.
Watch:
Shudder is bringing Creepshow back for a fourth season! Here's the new trailer:
I'll admit, I'm excited despite the fact that each of the seasons so far feel like exercises in diminishing returns. Season One is the strongest overall season, in my opinion, but three had the best episode (Public Television of the Dead and its wonderful, Bob Ross-meets-Evil-Dead feel). Regardless of perceived shortcomings, I very much root for Creepshow, and am glad to see it coming back after a nearly two-year hiatus.
Read:
Killing time Saturday afternoon in Chicago's south suburbs, I stopped in a Barnes and Noble for the first time in a long time. This particular store has been in Orland Park, Il, for years, and although my preferred big box bookstore environment was always the Borders that used to sit across the street, I've been in this B&N a handful of times. If you're familiar with the chain, you know that when you first walk inside most B&N stores, they have displays of their own publishing imprint, Fall River Press. These are normally public domain bargain books, but some of them are very nice. Case in point, this Hardcover H.P. Lovecraft edition that I picked up for $10:
This is by no means a 'complete' collection. What I've found with printed complete Lovecraft books is, they are so voluminous, the bindings are usually shite. This is a pretty smart-looking HC that collects six of HPL's more famous stories:
1) The Call of Cthulhu
2) The Colour Out of Space
3) The Haunter of the Dark
4) The Whisperer in Darkness
5) The Dunwich Horror
6) The Thing on the Doorstep.
While I still consider the .99 "Everything" volume I have on Kindle (no bad bindings there, and it's really easy for cross-referencing between stories), it's nice to have six of the big ones on a slim, attractive bookshelf volume as well.
Playlist:
The Replacements - Tim
Hollywood Babble-On Ep. 406
Real Ones w/ Jon Bernthal - Living A Double Life: Lou Valoze
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
bunsenburner - Rituals
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Baroness - Stone (pre-release singles)
Ministry - Goddamn White Trash (single)
GnR - Perhaps (single)
Steely Dan - Aja
Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun
The Blues Brothers - OST
Les Discarts - Prédateurs
Alice in Chains - Sap EP
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Crime Weekly: D.B. Cooper A Man with a Grudge (part 1)
The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives
Crime Weekly: D.B. Cooper Mystery Money (part 2)
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 0: The Fool
• Three of Pentacles
• Ten of Pentacles
Lots of "Earthly" concerns, and that tracks; spent the weekend in Chicago for a wedding, however, a lot of the time was also spent thinking about moving my folks out of the house I grew up in and down by us. There's The Fool's new journey, Three's Growth and Ten's Endings/Closure all rolled into one!!!
Baroness dropped another new track from their upcoming Stone, out September 15th. I'm really digging everything I've heard so far, and I adore this album art for this one; every album features Frontman John Dyer Baizley's paintings and all of them are fantastic. This one does something specific for me, apparently. Pre-order StoneHERE.
Watch:
Based on the description Bloody Disgusting gives in a recent article, I'm a little afraid of Karim Ouelhaj's new film Megalomaniac. That said, I made it about 7 seconds into the trailer and knew I wanted to see it:
That imagery, whatever it is, took my breath. I won't be watching any more of the trailer, but you can. You can also read the BD article HERE, or Meagan Navarro's review of the film HERE. I'm literally doing none of that. Megalomaniac is receiving US theatrical distribution on September 8th via Dark Star Pictures, although I'm fairly certain it will be limited and I won't get it here in Clarksville, so I'll be keeping an eye open on VOD streaming platforms.
Playlist:
Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Windhand - Eponymous
Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead
Various - Lords of Salem OST
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Card:
About to head out for the six-plus hour drive up to Chicago for the weekend, so just a quick (but important) Pull. I still try and use Missi's Raven Deck for occasions such as these, where Arcana is all I really need:
Don't struggle against change. Prescient for sure, for reasons I won't go into here.
How freakin' awesome is this? I mean, I'd rather have had a new Raveonettes record drop, but I'll take an all-star covers version of their debut, no problem. The list of participants here is fantastic, so it was hard to choose a track. Rip It Off is available everywhere now - rejoice!
NCBD:
I'm pretty pumped for this week's NCBD. Here's why:
Once again I'd like to acknowledge how full of shit I am when it comes to my constant refrain of, "I'm jumping off this Ghost Rider book." Issue 16 had another total Clive Barker undercurrent to it, and the Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance continued that (in a way), even though it did not do what I keep hearing about, the Weapon Plus (formerly erroneously referred to as the Weapon X) program reinstating with technology culled from Hell itself by Infernal Labs. I mean, that concept could be so freakin' Metal! Will it? Maybe. Either way, I guess I'll be around to see.
Nothing but good things to say about this one. Every issue of SIKTC comes and goes so quickly, I'm constantly wanting more. And that cover! This is one of the variants, but I'm hoping to snag one; very reminiscent of those House of Slaughter "Body Bag" covers last year.
Love the new, post-Armaggedon Game direction TMNT is taking. Between recent issues of this, the recently completed Last Ronin: Lost Years going out on such a high note, and all the various plotlines at play, I feel like we've weathered the crossover/event storm and finally gotten back around to some solid month-to-month storytelling!
I was not going to read this new iteration of Uncanny Avengers, then I found out Gerry Duggan is writing it. For me, that makes it worth giving the book a chance. The playing field is certainly aligned to make this a great book: how does Captain America stand beside mutants before a world Orchis has pretty much engineered to fear and hate them? This isn't like the old school, 'feared and hated' throughline that has haunted the X-books since the beginning; mutants are now globally blamed for terrible crimes against all of humanity, so I'm thinking the term "race traitor" is going to get thrown in Cap's face quite a bit. Of course, one of the things that makes Cap an evergreen character is his resolute adherence to his principles in the face of any and all odds and injustices. None of that means the book will be to my liking, however, Duggan's X-Men is such an outstanding read, how can I not give this a chance?
X-Men: Red continues to be one of the three most fascinating Marvel books I've read in a loooong time. The sheer grandiosity of Al Ewing's approach here, where so much is unrecognizable as X-continuity and so much is new, cosmic ground, is often breathtaking. This month's A cover says it all: I was never a Nova fan, but his inclusion in this book, along with all these intensely fascinating Arraki characters (never mind that I can't remember any of their names besides Jon Ironfire) make a far more interesting dynamic than just a bunch of the same old mutants. Add to that Apocalypse's apparent return, and I'm quite certain this will be another outstanding issue.
Watch:
When the most recent issue of Fangoria showed up on my doorstep a few weeks ago, one of the first articles I read was Jacqueline Castel's "A Very Modern Prometheus," a conversation with Birth/Rebirth director Laura Moss about her new take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Of course this put the film on my radar, so I was pleased to see an article on Bloody Disgusting this morning reporting the film hits Shudder this Friday, August 18th.
I love modern takes on the classic Frankenstein story. As per my new distrust of trailers, I turned this off at 1:11; I don't need to see any more to know I'll be watching this.
Playlist:
bunsenburner - Rituals
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Mudhoney -
Various - The Raveonettes Present: Rip It Off
Wesley Willis - Feel the Power
Mudhoney - Live at Third Man Records
High On Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remix/remaster)
Deftones - Gore
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Testament - Low
Testament - Demonic
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Wands
• XXI: The World
• XIX: The Sun
Six of Wands is a harmonization of Will, an achieved balancing point from which magnificent things can happen. Juxtapose that with The World (The Universe in Thoth-speak), and we see a massive overhaul of something coming up, especially when taken with The Sun, a card of revelations.
Sometimes the algorithm works in our favor (even if it will ultimately undo humanity completely). Case in point - bunsenburder's Rituals popped into my youtube feed last Friday. The front cover artwork reminded me of Genghis Tron's Dead Mountain Mouth, so I clicked play.
Forty-Seven minutes later I was left pretty much in awe.
You just won't believe where this one goes based on how it begins. I LOVE this band! Hailing from Freiburg Im Breisgau, Germany, here's the bio taken directly from their Bandcamp:
"bunsenburner evolved into an ever-rotating and expanding hive mind initially conceived and realised by the bassist and producer Ben Krahl in 2012."
Kinda sounds like a description of The Ocean early on in their career, right?
There's stuff on Rituals that reminds me of early Jucifer albums, of The Sword, of Angelo Badalamenti, The Calexico... the list goes on, and while it's not my intention to drown bunsenburner's music in comparisons - because honestly, that's not really possible with so unique an outfit as this, especially after you begin digging through their previous albums - I wanted to give folks enough to make them seek these guys out.
You can pick up a limited edition cassette copy of Rituals on the Bandcamp HERE, or also support the band digitally.
Watch:
Cinematic Void dropped a trailer for Up All Night - every Saturday this October, the Cinemadness movie will run on the Cinematic Void youtube channel HERE.
I can't say enough good things about Cinematic Void. Founder James Branscome does some of the best programming in the states in my opinion, and now that he's expanded from being L.A.-centric to including The Music Box in Chicago and other cities like Boston, I really wanted to help spread the word a bit farther afield. Check the Void out online and if you follow them over on FB, Twitter or Instagram and see a show close to you pop up, check it out. Also, as I've mentioned here plenty of times previously, the Cinematic Void Podcast is one of the best cult/Horror/exploitation podcasts out there. You can find them on Apple Podcasts HERE or Spotify HERE and, of course, the show is available pretty much anywhere else you might get your podcasts.
Also, and I just discovered this myself, The Void has a pretty awesome Big Cartel shop HERE.
Playlist:
The Hives - The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remix/remaster)
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP
Pastor T.L. Barret and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night
Card:
• Three of Disks:Work
• I: The Magus
• Queen of Disks
The Three of Disks indicates successful growth, although I'm always quick to add that growth will come as the result of some kind of labor. Not necessarily hard, physical labor. In this case here, the card's referencing my own mental labor, as I try and twist the disparate elements I've set up in the new novel and have them coalesce into the climax I can feel, but can't quite 'see' yet.
The Magus indicates, of course, that Magick will come in handy. I know this; my Magick IS the work and my commitment to it, because as so many Chaos Magicians have told us, from Hine to Moore to Spare, it's all about The Will.
The Queen of Disks reminds me to be emotionally grounded during this period. This is a direct reference to a kind of mini disassociative state that can sometimes swallow me when I'm so zeroed in that I drive myself crazy because, as Life would have it, I just can't always work on what I want to based on, you know, the day job, family, friends, etc. A good reminder.
Here's a song I love in such a quiet way that I never really stop to think about it. This and "Winjer" are sandwiched between heavy hitters "Shudder/King of Snakes" and "Bruce Lee" on Beaucoup Fish, and because of that, they both get kind of passed over. While "Winjer" definitely still feels like a 'corridor' track, "Skym" has this wonderful complexity bubbling below its quiet surface and at some point, it kind of stealthily sunk into my deepest feelings for this record that I love so much.
Watch:
Last night I hit the first showing of André Øvredal's latest film The Last Voyage of the Demeter. I was not a fan of the trailer, which I've sat through multiple times at the Cinema, and although the film rubbed me a bit wrong right at the start with its inherent "Big Studio Feel," Demeter ends up being pretty solid.
For a Dreamworks film, Øvredal makes some decidedly stunning choices. Even more stunning is that those choices got through the Big Studio filter. Makes me curious what they might have forced him to cut. I don't want to give the impression this flick is some gnarly Horror film - you can tell from those trailers that it's not - but at times, it's a lot more savage than I would have expected. Three stars out of Five and a Heart on Letterbxd.
And on the Horizon...
Having never heard of the Elevator Game before an episode of Paramount Plus's Evil - highly recommended, btw - I was pretty stoked when, on the Colors of the Dark podcast sometime last year, Rebekah McKendry mentioned her next film would be based on this weird A.F. urban legend. Now, here's the trailer:
I love actual Urban Legends, but the movies based on them almost always fall short for me. Holding out hope this won't fall into that same problem for me.
Playlist:
High On Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remixed/remastered)
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Wands
• Queen of Pentacles
• Six of Pentacles
A breakthrough of Will leads to understanding and acceptance of defining terms. That's a bit opaque, however, being that the Queen of Pentacles is the Emotional approach to Earthly matters and the Six of Pentacles is a balanced, 'perfected' state, I choose to read this as another reminder to follow the path before me, even is at kicks and bucks. I made huge progress in the last twenty-four hours based on the fact that yesterday's reading was spot on, so I'll continue the trend today.
Man, I was pretty skeptical when I heard High On Fire were having their first album, The Art of Self Defense remastered for a re-release. On the one hand, it's still probably my favorite of their albums (Blessed Black Wings comes a pretty close second, though). Yet, while I still have the original, Man's Ruin CD version of Self Defense I bought at Crow's Nest Records in Down Town Chicago shortly after it came out in 2000, I'd love to have the record on vinyl, so it was with great trepidation I hit play on Apple Music this morning...
It's awesome. My greatest fear was they would raise Pike's voice and over-compress; not that there's a precedent for the latter with the band's subsequent releases, and I love Pike's voice as it's come to more prominence with each release after this one, but there's something so amazing about the way Self Defense sounded the day I brought it home, sparked up and put it in the stereo all those years ago. I was perplexed by the singer's voice being so low (this was my introduction to the new wave of "Stoner Rock" as everyone was calling it at the time, having previously enjoyed St. Vitus and Count Raven more 'flush with the mix" vocals on WXAV, 88.3 FM, St. Xavier's College Radio), but marveled at the way the guitars sparkled like they do for only one other human being I know - Tony Iommi! The rhythm section was so tight, so pummelling; it was all just such a fresh experience compared to whatever else was out there at the time Metal-wise. So The Art of Self Defense looms large in my life, and as with anything we deem to be of that importance, I felt nervous as hell about anyone changing it.
Again, no reason to be nervous. This shit rules!
"Blood From Zion" feels the most changed from the first side of the album ("Master of Fists" sounds like a different guitar take altogether was used for this release). Interestingly, for most of the tracks, Matt Pike's voice remains at just about the exact same level it was at in the original release; it's just clearer. Nice trick! The descending riff that bridges the first and second verses has to be heard on headphones to be believed. IT'S SO FUCKING HEAVY. I mean, it was always so fucking heavy, but it's like they added subsonic bulldozers to the mix or something. SO GOOD.
You can find this pretty much everywhere online, however, High On Fire's Bandcamp has an exclusive, and while I love that original cover, I do still have that CD (remember Grace note database or whatever that function iTunes had where, if you transferred a CD to digital it could find the album information for you? When I digitized my old Self Defense to put on an iPod back in the late 00s, it came back with The Art of Self Defense, by Sleep!).
Yeah, I think I can make room in my soul for this cover, too. You can also order directly from MNRK Heavy HERE, where the non-exclusive still has the same cover and will cost you a few bucks less on shipping.
Watch:
Two nights ago, K and I watched Kurtis David Harder's newest film, Influencer on Shudder. I dug Harder's previous film Spiral quite a bit, but based on the title of this one, I was expecting a story about a completely unlikeable Influencer who gets her comeuppance.
Nope!
I'm not going to post the trailer, because you shouldn't watch it. Yes, in the opening sequence of the film, you meet a really annoying social media influencer. Stick with it! That's not what the film is; this one reminded me A LOT of the experience I had watching Brad Anderson's Transsiberian back in 2008 or 2009, whenever it first hit video. Both films take continuous ninety-degree turns, so without having seen a trailer or read anything about either, I was left wondering from scene to scene, "Oh, is this what the film is about? Is this the landscape the characters are going to have to live in?" And, so beautifully, those assumptions were always squashed as something new gets introduced to change the film's narrative yet again. Really fun watch; not Horror, but a thriller for sure. Save it for a night when you want twists and turns more than blood and guts.
Playlist:
††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP
††† - Eponymous
The Bronx - The Bronx (III)
Various - Lost Highway OST
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Deftones - White Pony
Converge - Jane Doe
Blue Karma - The Friction, the Pain
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIV - Temperance or "Art" in Thoth speak
• Four of Swords
• Three of Swords
Fight for your Art! Fours show stability and Threes the process of Growth or Change. The Novel's becoming something more than I'd planned, and while it's more work, I can temper myself against that and fight on toward the finish line.
Tarot aside, if you dig Jonathan Grimm's Bound deck, he has a Kickstarter launching on September 5th for his new deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot. This one's all Metal, Monsters, Magick in one beautiful deck. Here's the link; the campaign isn't active yet, but you can hit the Notify Me button and get in on the ground floor September 5th!
Somehow, I totally missed that The Besnard Lakes released a three-song EP last year. The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP is one of my favorite missives from the band in some time, and of its three perfect tracks, opener She's an Icicle is, to me, everything I love so much about the band: the swirling morass of guitars fx and keys, Bonham-esque beats and Jace's heavenly voice surrounded by layer upon layer of harmony, all combining to make a dirgey rock and roll ephemera.
You can order this directly from the band HERE.
NCBD:
Short and sweet this week. Here we go:
I love the fact that we still haven't seen all of the fallout from the events of this year's Hellfire Gala. Man! I'm still blown away by that issue. So much changed so fast. Based on this cover, I think we're going to start really feeling things with this issue.
I wasn't going to read this issue the same way I keep saying I'm dropping Ghost Rider's main monthly book, but they keep pulling me back in. The idea that there's a new Weapon X/Weapon Plus program coming, but one that utilizes the stolen powers of Hell just blows my mind. HIGHEST of concepts; let's hope they pull it off.
Brew:
I stumbled across this on Kickstarter recently (Thanks to an email from Unplugged, the beer tracking app), and I'm pretty tempted to get in on this one:
It's a lot of money, but seems like it would definitely pay for itself at some point. Or, it would just make me drink more. Hmm...
Read:
I finished Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper yesterday and am happy to report I was blown right the fuck away. Talk about one-upping the original. I'm not saying Reaper is better than Chainsaw, but to be as good, with even more stakes, well, damn. Just damn. Now we just have to wait until March 26, 2024, for the final installment, The Angel of Indian Lake.
Now, of course, I need something new to read and I just don't know what can follow SGJ. I've had Grady Hendrix's We Sold Our Souls in my Kindle forever, but my friend Jesus sent me a physical copy a few months ago and it's on my nightstand, so I guess that's the winner by default.
This one comes highly recommended by a lot of people; however, for whatever reason, I've been reluctant. I LOVED Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism back when I read it circa 2017, so much so that I actually bought something like half a dozen copies and sent them to a bunch of friends for their birthdays at the time. That experience left me feeling like I would read anything Hendrix wrote, then a funny thing happened. I watched Satanic Panic, which Hendrix wrote the screenplay for, and hated it so much that it turned me off instantly. If questioned, I no longer even remember what it was I disliked about that flick, and a good friend recently said he saw it and loved it, so I'm thinking if We Sold Our Souls goes over well, I may give that another go, too.
Playlist:
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow Live at CBGB
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP
††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP
Card:
• Ace of Disks
• III The Empress
• Queen of Cups
Ace of Disks always reads as a monetary or 'Earthly' breakthrough, and combined with The Empressthe implied Motherly qualities of The Empress and the Emotional fortitude of the Queen of Cups, I'd say this is directly referring to my folks coming down here this weekend to house hunt.
I did not realize we had a new full-length on the way from Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez's †††, but Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. officially drops on October 13th. Pre-order Here.
This one took me a minute to warm up to, and I'm done with it until the full-length arrives, simply because with †††, I really feel the context of an entire recording makes their songs that much stronger.
The Vinyl High:
A couple new acquisitions showed up on my doorstep last week. First up, Bohren and der Club of Gore's 2000 MASTERPIECE, Sunset Mission:
This is one I've wanted for quite some time. Available HERE on the Pias label's website; I'd seen a few complaints on Discogs about this pressing being noisy, but not my copy. Pristine, Sunset Mission was made to be heard on vinyl. This one is kind of the nexus of everything I love about the music in Twin Peaks and everything I love about the music in Cowboy BeBop, so finally acquiring it on vinyl kind of completes a bit of a trilogy for me, I guess.
Next up, John Harrison's Soundtrack for George A. Romero's Day of the Dead:
I honestly don't know how I passed this one by for so long. I'd actually forgotten Waxwork Records released this until two Fridays ago when I watched the Joe Bob Brigg's Last Drive-In season finale, where Joe Bob and Darcy not only played and talked about Romero's third entry in his original Zombie trilogy but also had a small cast reunion with Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander and Jarlath Conroy. I'd already been thinking about Boards of Canada a lot recently, in that I started following the BOC fan Instagram page, where one post kind of marveled over all the negative reactions to 2013's Tomorrow's Harvest. Easily my favorite album by BoC - which is really saying something because I have deep connections to most of their records - not only did I never understand how so many people didn't like this, I doubly didn't understand how 80s Horror fans don't like Harvest, because it plays so much like a Carpenter/Romero score. This is especially true of Harrison's work on Day of the Dead, where most of Harvest would seemingly be right at home following the opening track of the movie.
Playlist:
Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun
John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Witchskull - The Serpent Tide
The Cure - Pornography
Fabio Frizi - House By the Cemetery OST
Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Card:
• Six of Disks Success
• Princess of Disks
• Three of Cups: Abundance
This feels like a direct response to yesterday's Pull, as a lot of my reservations disappeared as soon as I started really applying my force of Will to make progress and achieve success in a few chapters that seemed hopelessly lost a day or so ago.
Well, I totally fucked up Marty and Drexel's Live Music Week, so here's some new music from former 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards.
It's hard to imagine a band and album that affected me more in the early 00s than 16 Horsepower's Low Estate. I love everything they did, and everything David Eugene Edwards followed that band in Wovenhand, and now everything he's released under his name (which is still also known as Wovenhand? I'm not really sure). But everything has been chasing that feeling I got the first time I heard "Brimstone Rock" and the thirteen songs that follow it. But that's the thing with an artist like Edwards - he makes such a deep impact upon introduction because his approach, his songwriting, his tone and his lyrics all combine to make such a signature sound, that it's similar to but completely unlike anything you've heard before until you hear him. So too with this new track from the forthcoming album Hyacinth, out September 29th on Sargent House. Pre-order HERE.
Watch:
I watched a couple flicks over the weekend, but none I enjoyed more than 2018's The Meg:
When I saw this in the theatre upon its original release, I didn't really care for it. Didn't hate it, but nothing about The Meg grabbed me at the time. After hearing Ben Wheatley is directing the sequel, and after seeing a trailer for Meg 2: The Trench a few weeks ago and really digging it (I can't turn the deep sea trench thing down, and there appears to be a lot more of that in this film), K and I decided to rewatch the first movie. You know what? LOTS of fun. I don't know if I was just in a more accepting mood because of my interest in the sequel, but I really had a good time with The Meg this time.
Read:
Less than one hundred pages from the end, I can tell you that Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper is one of the best sequels ever!
I blew through almost two hundred pages yesterday, which wasn't easy to do as we had guests visiting from out of town. This is one of those carry-it-everywhere-and-read-it-any-chance-you-get novels, and I am 100% riveted. If you've still not read My Heart is a Chainsaw and you love literature, Horror novels, Slasher flicks or just a damn good yard, grab that and this in one swoop and dig in.
Playlist:
Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands
Led Zeppelin - Eponymous
Led Zeppelin - IV
The Door - L.A. Woman
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 2: Philosophy of Beyond
Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Sandrider - Godhead
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin
Various - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo
Card:
• Three of Disks: Works
• Five of Cups: Disappointment
• Ten of Cups: Sobriety
I'm having self-doubt that I can pull off this new novel the way I want to. That's a bit vague, but the cards definitely seem to be referencing this fear. There is a height I feel as though this story can attain, I'm just not sure I'm completely on the path to achieving that. Which would be a shame, because if I finish it and it's not what I want, I'll have to take a break for a while and come back to it. The Three of Disks indicate success through effort but juxtaposed with disappointing results. The Ten of Cups indicates perfect alignment, which leaves me needing a clarifying card:
• XVII: The Star indicates a turning point for the positive. Also, from the grimoire:
"Fulfillment - when this comes up, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan."
I saw this new Aphex Twin single dropped a few days ago, but it actually took me a minute to build up the desire to hit play. I haven't loved much of what Richard James has done over the last two decades, so I was tentative to re-engage with new Aphex Twin music. Turns out, all my fears were for naught, as I love this track; it reminds me - in spirit - of I Care Because You Do, which I used to lay alone, high, listening to in my room in my early 20s, a rich but isolatory experience to say the least.
Watch:
A trailer for Satanic Hispanics dropped yesterday - I've been waiting for this one since I missed out on scoring tickets for the screening at last year's Beyondfest:
Ever since I first saw The Convent in 2003, I've been a pretty huge Mike Mendez fan, and while I don't love everything he does as much as I love The Convent, I count him as a favorite Director. Also, thanks once again to Beyondfest, around 2013 I was introduced to GiGi Saul Guerrero's short film El Gigante. I've mentioned this one here before, and even though it's no longer currently streaming on Shudder, it's 100% worth looking up. Think OG Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Luchador wrestling and that will put you in the ballpark. It's awesome, and ever since seeing that, Guerrero is another Director I follow. Her and Mendez's involvement in this Anthology puts it at the top of my "I want this right bloody now" list, so waiting nearly a year has been difficult.
Playlist:
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
"Mutha fucka must'a thought it was live music week. It ain't live music week, is it Marty?"
"Yeah, man. It's live music week."
Well, Marty and Drexel have spoken. It's live music week. Here's a nice, tight live set from The Kills, originally published on the From The Basement youtube channel, which you should definitely check out and subscribe to HERE.
NCBD:
My picks for this week's NCBD:
After last week's Hellfire Gala, well, shit. I can't wait to see this. I'll admit, I did not expect the landscape of X to be so completely changed in just one issue. Looking at a lot of the books launching after this, I'm not super interested in how the X Bullpen is choosing to explore this new playing field, however, I maintain my hopes that the core books will continue to turn out awesome entries into this aptly named Fall of X saga on a monthly basis.
The final issue of TMNT's The Last Ronin: Lost Years. In comics, possible future spin-offs are pretty common, and in general, I'd say I'm a fan. That said, there's so much of this kind of story out there, it feels a little overdone these days, and I tend to stay away from them. In TMNT's case, I really feel like they did it right. I don't know if I need a constant line of these Last Ronin stories, but I'd definitely be up to revisit the world again at a future date.
A Thessaly one-shot written by James Tynion? Yeah, sure. I want that. Thessaly's always been a Sandman Universe character that fascinates me. She's brutal and sexy and seemingly has no fear, which always makes her showing up a bit fretful for the characters already in play in any given story. Since this ties into the current Nightmare Country storyline, I'm curious to see whose blood Thessaly spills. Also, curious to see her and The Corinthian interact, as I can't remember off the top of my head if that's ever happened before.
Read:
I finished my re-read of Stephan Graham Jones's My Heart is a Chainsaw yesterday and immediately jumped into this year's sequel, Don't Fear the Reaper. It's funny - last year when Chainsaw came out, I was sick, home from work for a week, and read it in three days. This year, I'm not only working, but hammering out a novel, so I had to read it more piecemeal. Didn't affect the sheer joy the novel inspires in me, but I also wanted to state it out loud, so no one out there reading this thinks Chainsaw is anything but one of the greatest Horror novels since Pet Semetery.
Only a couple chapters in so far, and I already can feel I am standing at the precipice of a masterpiece. I don't know how I can love the sequel more - and I don't want to jinx it - but the broadening scope Jones starts laying out in Chapter Two: Dark South Mill has me positively giddy with excitement at where the novel will go.
Playlist:
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
The Kills - Live From the Basement
Arctic Monkeys - The Car (thanks Josh!)
Goblin - 2013 Tour E.P.
Zombi - Shape Shift
Mammon XV - Woes and Winter's Breath
Silent - Modern Hate
Meg Myers - Sorry
Steely Dan - Aja
Calexico - The Black Light
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IV: The Emperor
• V: The Hierophant
• Page of Cups
Decisiveness in the face of dogma and institutions we adhere to in our daily lives. In other words, decide against the grain of the life I've set up
Duration:
I've kind of messed up the days I'm doing this report, and this is a week old now, so I'll post the current report tomorrow.
Better. Not great, but better than last week, and I'm making leaps and bounds in the actual mechanics of the ending, which again is known, but not yet written. I've gone back through the entire novel, shoring things up, installing alignments that will hopefully carry me into a successful first draft of that ending.
From Alice Donut's 1994 Live at CBGB's album Dry Humping the Cash Cow. Fantastic double-disc capture of Donut in their prime. Mr. Brown gifted me this on vinyl and a few years ago and from first listen, the recording and performance blew me away. I wish I would have seen Alice Donut live, but alas, that never happened. I don't know their discography nearly as well as I should, with a large part of my time with the band having been eaten up by a preoccupation that bordered on obsession for a while in the late 90s with their 1992 masterpiece The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children, which is start to finish, one of the best and most underrated albums of the 90s.
Watch:
I've been waiting for Stewart Thorndike's Bad Things to hit Shudder since reading an article in the most recent issue of Fangoria. I wasn't the biggest fan of Thorndike's 2014 film Lyle, but I definitely liked it and felt as though, my opinion aside, this was a director to watch.
This flick looks unnerving as hell, and all the references I keep seeing to Gayle Rankin's performance evoking Jack Torrance, well, sign me up.
Playlist:
Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun
Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow
The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast - S7E21: The Top of the Heap
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Card:
• III: The Empress
• 0: The Fool
• XIII: Death
Lots of BIG influences are afoot today. Keeping my eyes open for signs to the contrary, but this seems to suggest a fork in the path; institution vs. change.
I cracked out the Underworld the other day for a writing session and got to wondering where the seemingly found-sound sample at the beginning of Beaucoup Fish's track "Jumbo" came from. Leave it Reddit to supply an answer. From a Drowned in Sound interview with Karl Hyde from 2010, you can read all about it HERE (the specific reference to the sample is in the final paragraph of the interview).
Watch:
I have this list of things friends recommend to me. I always feel a bit bad, because it sometimes takes me years to get around to a lot of it. But I do try to get around to as much of it as I can. Case in point: it's gotta be three years since Mr. Brown recommended HBO's Painting with John, a short-episode show where Lounge Lizards co-founder and Jim Jarmusch regular John Lurie pontificates on everything from New York to sunsets to Barry White, all while working on his iconic watercolor paintings. Here's a trailer:
I put this one last night when it was too late to start a movie, and K and I both kind of fell in love with the show. Lurie has fascinated me, ever since Mr. Brown gifted me No Pain For Cakes, the Lounge Lizards 1987 album that just hit me at the exact right time. Painting with John has kind of done exactly the same thing.
Playlist:
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Haunt Me - Dying in Your Arms
Jed Kurzel - The Babadook OST
Jammes Luckett - May OST
Sandrider - Godhead
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Spotlights - Seance EP
A001 - Necro (single)
Brand New - Science Fiction
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Underworld - Riverrun Project
Godflesh - Purge
Secret Chiefs 3 - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini
Naked Raygun - Over the Overlords
Etta James - Third Album
Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts
