Deafheaven - The Pecan Tree

Just because it's so fucking awesome.

2018: May 19th 11:25

Chester Whelks absolutely kills it with a brief call-to-arms for reassessing one of the greatest albums by a hip hop artist in the last twenty years (in my opinion). READ IT HERE.

K surprised me a bit by asking to go see Deadpool 2 for her birthday yesterday. We saw the original on video about eight months ago and both liked it, K more than I. I may still be suffering fatigue from blockbusters and thus, eschewing all of them, I'd never begrudge my girl anything. Plus, there's something about the strange, Meta-soup that Reynolds has spearheaded here; my interest and enjoyment of Deadpool 2 - which I liked infinitely more than Deadpool 1 - lies in its comedy. Ask most of my friends and they will half-jokingly tell you, "Shawn hates comedies." This isn't completely untrue; the comedies I love - The Burbs, Airplane, Real Men, Ghostbusters, The Convent, The Big Lebowski (not a comedy but still shows up on this list! How's that?), are so well-made they make me hate most modern comedies. While I quite liked both Neighbors movies, Pineapple Express (maybe more for the shock of Gary Kohl as a villain than anything else, but still) and the Twenty-One Jumpstreets revivals, I find no reason for laughing at most of what comes out in the genre. Deadpool 2 was f*&kin' hysterical, and largely because it is so aware of itself. The tragic backstory that catalyzes most of the events in the movie are even delivered so hard-nosed I couldn't help but crack a smile. And sorry, Josh Brolin was born to play Cable. Just saying.

Yesterday's playlist:

Apex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Lantlos - .neon
Geto Boys - Eponymous
Merciful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
Eagulls - Ullages
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls

Card of the day:

Emotion tempered with Intellect. Rain falls on the calm waters - emotions rousing the mind, stirring decisions beyond those made by sheer intellect. The reins in the Prince's hand, wresting control from the tumultuous forces threatening the calm - this should not necessarily be looked at as 'bad' - the creative process is a marriage of Emotion and Intellect; a tumultuous explosion that we must shape and control in order to actually record or define.

2018: May 18th 5:00 AM

In my head upon waking; pretty sure I've posted this before, but it's good enough to post again:



The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying went up yesterday. You can read it HERE.


Back when Riverdale first came out I loved their posters - the tone of the piece, kind of a Neon Noir look, really caught me, and the fact that I read/heard someone somewhere refer to it as "Dawson's Peaks" intrigued me; I couldn't care less about the Dawson part, but the Peaks part, well, that should be obvious. When season one hit Netflix I gave it a shot, liked it okay, but it just didn't make the cut; I have to be pretty severe in what I choose to watch these days, as my time for tv is minimal to say the least. Now though, I see this and I know I have to go back and catch up, because my mind is blown that season two of an updated Archie story (I should really stop thinking of it in those terms) has a Giallo element. I mean, who saw that coming?

Playlist from 5/17:

Eagulls - Ullages
The Geto Boys - Geto Boys
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Kitty Lester - Love Letters
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞
Lantlos - .neon

Two cards today:

It annoys me that I couldn't find the actual card, instead of this weird, dark-bordered version. Either way, I'm looking at this as I'm going to encounter my dark side today - or perhaps someone else's - and I will need to bring balance to the situation. This sounds about right, know the day I had yesterday and what's on deck at the office today.

2018: May 17th 6:59 AM

Yesterday I dug out Eagulls' second album, Ullages, for the first time in quite a while. I really liked the album when it came out, but it was somewhat the wrong time for me to fully invest in it - I was still riding too high on the frenetic burst of their debut, and the dour vibe, while glorious, was perhaps too much of a downer at the time. Enjoying sadness can be tricky, and definitely requires a particular mindset; without that mindset there is no enjoyment, only Zoul. I mean, there isn't a proper enjoyment, more of a sulking. For me at least.

I stuck to it though, and it helped me process the tracks in a different context when I saw the band live about a month after Ullages came out; the band absolutely killed it, and all the new songs sounded fantastic, intermixed with tracks from the first record to inject a bit of pep and throb amidst the otherwise seriously downtempo tone. Going back to the record now, after some time away and inherent expectations have faded, I'm falling into the sullen British craft of the record and it feels exquisite.

Playlist from yesterday:

Jamiroquai - Return of the Space Cowboy
Eagulls - Eponymous
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Eagulls - Ullages
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire, "Overcoming opposites - attraction. Recognizing what belongs together - union."

Check. A confirmation that K and I need to carve out a little more time together, as of late it's been difficult, with her Mom fully moved in and my writing constantly. Her birthday is tomorrow, and I intend to make this a very special weekend.

2018: May 15th 6:15 PM

First, because I've been All-Black Metal, All-the Time, let's do something as a pattern interrupt:



After I finished David Peak's Corpsepaint two nights ago I immediately ordered this:

Back when I worked at Borders, this always caught my eye. I'm so taken with exploring this fascinating subculture right now that I just can't look away, and I wanted some non-fiction to bolster and sustain the high that I still have from Peak's book.

Playlist from yesterday:

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicenter

The Ocean - Aeolian

Venue - Desireena

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Deafheaven - Roads to Judah

Card of the day today was:

An eight. Of course. The number of building. Because I've worked on T12 everyday for two weeks, and Keller and I are really building something, not the story per se, but also a system by which we intend to tell many stories, the next two after this one already slated.

2018: May 14th 8:38 AM

Falling down a black metal hole thanks to Corpsepaint, which I finished and weighs in as my fourth favorite novel of all-time.




Playlist from 5/12:

Darkness Brings the Cold - The Psychoangelic Crypt
Cocksure - TV
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1
The Best of Ella Fitzgerald, Vol. 2

Playlist from 5/13:

Burzum: Filosfem

Card of the day:

Could be good news coming when I combine this pull with something my boss told me late last week.

2018: May 12th 8:07 AM

Here's a song I originally found back in the mid-00s and then lost track of. Recently, I spent a good amount of time looking for Salem's Dirt on youtube but A) although the video left a lasting impression in my head, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the track, and B) there are a lot of bands named Salem. Anyway, I get to Keller's the other day and he has a Grimes-inspired playlist on and I see Salem Redlights. This makes me think about my fruitless search and I go on a tear again, preempting our meeting just to try and find this song. And I finally find it, I think by googling some combination of the words, "Salem + Music Video + Garage". Creepy AF.

I don't know if Salem is still kicking. Back in 2006-2007, I spent a lot of time nosing around online for music. I was also reading Wire magazine rabidly, and between the two I found quite a bit of really left of center music. I'm not talking about System of a Down left of center - they're not - or even Mike Patton left of center. This was small stuff. It was also around the time I first heard the terms "Witchhouse" and "Hypnogogic Pop", which may have essentially been the same thing. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that just kind of got swallowed with time, Salem being one of them. I stopped reading Wire after I left Borders (I'd have to drive to Amoeba to get it - need to look into reading it online), and started spending my time writing instead of snooping for music. The one site I found during the final years of that whole musical archeology thing that I stick to religiously is Heaven is an Incubator, because honestly, Tommy finds only great stuff and he finds a lot of it. Good to re-claim this now as something I can go to when I need a freaky vibe to catalyze a scene or idea.

I signed up for Tubi and finally gave Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem another chance and, holy cow, I really liked it. The last time I think my two major problems were we were still kind of coming off his lackluster Halloween stint, and I fell asleep during my viewing. This time I was wide awake in spite of starting the movie with some yawns, but it pretty much kept me glued. And I thought Sherri Moon Zombie did a really great, somewhat nuanced job in the starring role. So that kind of puts RZ's films back in the black with me, with only his Michael Myers-as-Jason Voorhees singular one of his I hate, and the first Halloween feeling pointless and mean.

Playlist from yesterday:

Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin 1
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelicts
Nachtmystium - Reign of the Malicious
Darkness Brings the Cold - IX
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. 2
Burzum - Aske

Card of the day:

Watery aspect of fire - temper Will with Emotion.