2019: March 21st - New Zeal & Ardor Track!

This showed up in my youtube feed last night and frankly, listening to it was so exciting I had a bit of trouble falling asleep afterward. This band continues to amaze me; while this track obviously bears more than a little passing resemblance to the standard 'Zeal & Ardor Sound,' there's more than enough that's 'new' here to show that Manuel and crew are continuing to stretch that signature sound in new directions, without eschewing the core ideas that made them so awesome in the first place. Not an easy thing to do, but they're doing it. So coupled with Baphoment, the new track K and I saw them play at the Roxy back in August, that's two new tracks. Let's hope we get another new album sooner than later. That said, don't rush it guys. Just keep doing what you're doing.

**

Tuesday night after work I drove up to Hollywood, and my friend Keller and I attended something of a dream event - Harmony Korine's 1997 film Gummo in 35mm at the Egyptian Theatre, with Korine present after the film, interviewed at the front of the room by a long-time friend.

It was magnificent.

Gummo has, since shortly after I first saw the film back in, oh, probably '99, occupied a spot in my top-five favorite films of all time. And while the movie disgusts many folks, this screening cemented my observation that it is both one of the most ugly and simultaneously one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. There is such life here! After the movie, Korine talked about casting, and how he wanted to put people in the movie that you normally would never see in a movie. You can argue that there's an element of exploitation here, but to that I'd counter that Korine documents and puts himself in the film, which to me dissolves the barrier between filmmaker and subjects. He's one of them, not above them, and I think he makes this very clear. I feel real love in Gummo, and while there's definitely some terrible stuff contained within, it's documented objectively, not celebrated or diminished.

**

Because I was out late Tuesday, I'd already secured yesterday off from work. The caveat to myself though, was if I stay home, I have to work. So, I spent the entire day, from about 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM working to finish Shadow Play, with only the distraction of the occasional break to read a comic and several loads of laundry between sessions. There was some major dialogue sculpting I had to do in some of the final chapters, and one serious flaw in a certain character's logic that caused a massive reassessment and overhaul of the last ten chapters. Nothing plot-wise, but all the tiny nuances that go into this disparate collection of characters' lives and machinations all coming to a head in a penultimate moment needed to be massaged something fierce. You know, you change something here, you have to follow the ripples through to the end and make sure they all gel. And although I was exhausted and in need of an ice cold Sierra Nevada by 6:15 PM, I am quite happy with the work. Four more chapters to record and I'm ready for that final go-through. Can't wait.

**

I worked with such focus yesterday, that I was able to ignore two major trailers that dropped and had everyone talking. I'll post them here now as I watch them for the first time.



Wow. Kudos on the use of Baba O'Riley. Also, that's quite the monster near the end, right? And this one, well, I just can't wait for this one:



Playlists from the past few days:

3/20:

John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST

3/19:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Finn Andrews - One Piece at a Time
Kevin Ayers - Bananamour
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST

Card of the day:

I keep seeing this one. There's definitely something more below the surface here, something I don't have the time to research at the moment. Deep dive later on.

2019: March 18th: First Track from Final Cranberries Album

Wow. I didn't even know this was coming. I've never been a very active Cranberries fan, despite the fact that I loved their sound. Zombie and Dreams were HUGE parts of the musical landscape of my youth, but I never really followed through on their albums. Then, maybe ten years ago, I picked up Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We and experienced a brief fascination with the band again after the use of one of their songs in the movie, The Sound of My Voice. I had just fallen head over heels in love with The Smiths - another band I had previously only dabbled with -  and with their music floating through my head 24/7, I began to realize a lot of other bands were directly influenced by them, The Cranberries one of them.

When Dolores O'Riordan tragically passed away in 2018, an unexpected thing happened on Los Angeles radio - everybody began playing The Cranberries again. What's more, from what I gather in my little snippets of FM radio at work, they still play them. Often. This feels a bit like some sad triumph for a great band that kind of disappeared for years, only to resurface after tragedy. Fast forward to April 26th this year, and apparently we get the final album The Cranberries recorded with O'Riordan and then, that's it. This is the first single, and both the song and the video are emotional heavy weights in light of everything that's happened. A fitting tribute to the late O'Riordan, whose voice was really unlike anyone else's on Earth.



You can pre-order In The End HERE.

**

I received and began reading The Art of Hunting, the second book in Alan Campbell's Gravedigger Chronicles, and I can already tell I'm going to freak out when it's over, knowing there's a third volume finished that Tor won't publish. I can't express how high a regard I hold Campbell's writing in; I did when I read the Deepgate Codex, and the Gravedigger series feels like a serious level up from that, so in my mind, this is a fantastic example of expertly rendered world-building fantasy that does not succumb to "Tolkienism."

Yeah, I made that term up.

Anyway, thirty pages in, and The Art of Hunting has me as strongly as Sea of Ghosts did.

Playlist from 3/17:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God

Card of the day:

A lot of ending this morning. I'm reading this one at face value: I'll finish the reading of Shadow Play today. I had an excellent session yesterday, and I really can't stress what a game changer reading out loud has been for me. I'm finding the book very much on track, and hearing it out loud is helping iron out little inconsistencies in tone, syntax, grammar, and detail.

2019: March 17th

Friday March 15th was the three-year anniversary of Tom's death. This year it blind-sided me, and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even realize it until the morning of the 16th, when K reminded me. Tom - wow. When I stop to consider it, I can still feel his loss like it's a wound that's only scabbed over. You know, the kind you bump against the inside of your dresser drawer that sticks, and it opens and gushes blood and pain for a few hours. That's exactly what contemplating my 'former life' is like, in regards to Tom (and Tom alone). You'd think with the number of friends I've lost in my life - an inordinate amount by most people's standards - death would come a bit easier. And I guess it kind of does. But when the loss is someone you see everyday, that you live with, it's different. And Tom stuck with me through the worst time of my life, and what's more, made it clear he understood and wanted to help me persevere. That's pretty insane, if you ask me. The bond we had was unlike any I've had with a cat before or after, and I am definitely a cat lover. Anyway, Tom, I miss you. I'll be raising a pint in your honor later tonight. In the meantime, this one's for you, my friend:



**
If you want to see the best goddamn coverage of SXSW, click over to Heaven is an Incubator's page and feast your eyes on the meat and potatoes of the yearly fest. You can find coverage on a ton of sites, but not like this. Tommy goes out of his way every year to burrow in deep and really find the stuff that matters, not just the stuff everyone already wants to read about. In years past he usually posts about bands that seep up throughout the subsequent years into taking the spotlight, and I'd wager this year is no different. Also, he's started a 'daily jam' posting schedule that I absolutely adore. Link to Heaven Is An Incubator HERE.

**
Friday night, K and I saw Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats at the Wiltern. WOW! Seriously these guys blew me right the hell away. I mean, I knew they'd be good, but this was another level. All business, no nonsense, Uncle Acid easily goes into the category of 'Best bands I've seen live.' Tight performance, heavy as hell, and awash in Occult/psychedelic imagery, I still can't stop thinking about how great their set was. And as much as I dig their albums, none of them do the band's sound full justice. Neither does this video, from youtube Chicanochrist, but it gives you a sense of their visual presence:



Uncle Acid's Wasteland album might not have made it into my top ten of 2018, but I love it and couldn't wait to see it live. Especially because I had no idea what to expect. I'd never seen what the members of the band look like, and especially with Kevin Starrs' unique voice, I harbored a strange, almost B-movie idea of the face attached to the voice. This ambiguity is a rarity these days, and as much as it is partially of my own design, I feel like it's also part of the band's mythos. So when faced with having the curtain pulled back by seeing them live, I had to embrace the idea of giving that ambiguity up.

But you know what? It didn't happen.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats took the stage under darkness, with a video image and an elongated version of the loud speaker announcement that begins Wasteland playing over the speakers. From there they ripped directly into album opener I See Through You, then proceeded to plow through song after song, hoping from Wasteland to Bloodlust to The Night Creeper, no acknowledgement of the crowd until after six or seven songs, when the man I'm assuming was Kevin Starrs simply asked how we were doing. Of course, he didn't wait for a reply before kicking into Crystal Spiders from the band's recently re-released demo, Vol. 1.

The reason I can only assume our addresser was Kevin Starrs is because A) he was standing in the middle, and B) he was playing guitar and singing into a microphone. However - and maybe this is simply my self-imposed ignorance of the members of the band, which, as you can no doubt tell from above I prefer - but stage left was another man playing a guitar and singing into a microphone. The music was played so flawless, executed in such a concise manner, that you couldn't tell who was singing or playing what. And other than one subsequent brevity to the crowd, there was no speaking in-between songs. The performance was all about the music and the aesthetic, that's it. So in my mind, the band fully retained their enigmatic presence. Which is awesome, because I love the mythos I perceive around these guys; the evocation of that strange era of the 60s/70s when hippy dippy free love turned into hard drugs, black magick and satanism. This is the first band I've encountered since My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult back in the early 90s that feels dangerous in some capacity.

Opening was local band Twin Temple. My good friend Chris from The Thirsty Crows and The Horror Vision turned me onto these guys a couple weeks ago, and they did not disappoint live. Self-described as "Satanic Doo-Wop," I'd say a more accurate description is a Satanic Amy Winehouse. Either way, check out this video:



Finally, it's St. Paddy's day! Since our new place is considerably smaller than my former residence, I'm unable to hold my annual party, and as such my 'St Paddy's Spirit' is considerably diminished. I've got a corned beef in the slow cooker, and some Guinness to quaff, but I'm not even really in the mood to watch State of Grace - which I'll probably watch and be consumed by anyway.

Playlist from 3/14:

Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Thin Lizzy - Fighting
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Playlist from 3/15:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Nick Lowe - The Jesus of Cool
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Playlist from 3/16:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Card of the day:

Hod, the area of Prudence, defined by Merriam-Webster as the ability to govern and discipline oneself with the use of reason. This applies directly to the self-destructive feelings I have toward a certain project I have right now, one that the carelessness of of one of those involved has led to a flurry of thoughts on my part to end the project. Anger and frustration are a natural reaction when the carelessness of others directly affects our plans, lives, etc. But instead of lashing out, it's always better to just take it on the chin and continue. If, that is, it's something and someone you care about.

2019: March 14th

I had completely forgotten there was a new album from Le Butcherettes that dropped in February! Only a couple listens in, I prefer the back half of the album to the A side, but overall bi/MENTAL is a stand-out piece of music.

New Music from Grimes, but not Grimes? The music is not grabbing me the way anything on Visions or Art Angels did, but the song isn't really the point. Double click on the embed here and listen to the track on Grimes' official youtube channel. While you're listening, read the summary. It's fascinating. Apparently this is not from the forthcoming Grimes album, but from a musical she is working on. This character is named "Dark." Grimes has a really interesting creative thought process, which is why many of us like her so much. Can't wait to see what comes next. But yeah, I really want that next Grimes album...



Playlist from 3/13:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Second Still - Eponymous
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Card of the day:

Creative Drive (Binah, the Mother); striving toward a goal. Yep.

2019: March 13th

For the last two days, I've actually woken up before my first alarm at 4:07 AM and had time to do my daily entry early. Both days I've begun things with Talking Heads' 1980 album Remain in Light on headphones. On an album where every song is my favorite song, Born Under Punches is probably my favorite of the favorite. There's something so huge about this song; so many moving parts that comprise the whole. If you listen to Remain in Light on headphones, Brian Eno's production becomes entrancing. This pairing was so well suited; on Eno's three collaborations with David Bowie you can hear how he brings a certain approach to rhythm. The only way I can think to describe it this early, while I wait for my first pot of coffee to complete its brew cycle, is he thickens it. This works wonders for Bowie's music, transforming it into something those who'd followed the Thin White Duke to that point hadn't heard before from him. When we apply the same aesthetic techniques to a band like Talking Heads, a band that already looks at rhythm from a slightly non-rock perspective (not to diminish Bowie), well, you get Remain in Light. This live version further emboldens that approach, only in a live environment, and the result is mesmerizing.

Such a great freakin' band!

Virtually nothing for me on this NCBD, although I'd been on the fence about continuing The Dreaming and I may stop in and pick up the three issues I've missed; having recently completed reading issues three and four, I'm finding I really want to continue. Lucifer, the book I previously thought I would be reading consistently, has kind of fallen by the way side for me, and I'm not sure I will go back to it.



Oh! After a quick check on today's release (I use THIS SITE), I've realized Dan Wickline's Freeze #4 hits stands today, so that's a definite reason to stop in at the Bug and hang out a bit.

Like I need a reason.

David Lucarelli, author of The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade and the BRILLIANT Tinsel Town, just launched a Kickstarter for the expanded graphic novel edition of the five-issue series. Link to it HERE:



I can't wait to support this, and I suggest you do the same. Tinsel Town is a fantastic historical series about Abigail Moore, the first woman police officer in fictionalized version of the early Twentieth Century Universal City, when Universal Studios was had its own police force! Inspired by Lucarelli's mother, who was a Police Officer for twenty years in Pittsburgh, Tinsel Town is expertly plotted, beautifully told, and personal enough to give it a meaty emotional resonance that will linger in your thoughts well after having read it.

Playlist from 3/12:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Fela Kuti - The '69 Los Angeles Sessions
Fela Kuti - Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
Misfits - Earth A.D.
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Bells Into Machines - Eponymous
Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
King Woman - Doubt EP
King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

No card today.

2019: March 12th

In Search of Darkness is the self-appointed, "Definitive 80s Horror Documentary." We've been knee-deep in horror docs at the moment, with both Horror Noire and Eli Roth's History of Horror landing on Shudder within a few weeks of one another, but who cares? I love watching these, hearing insider's interpretations, and building a scope for the tempest I grew up inside the eye of in the 80s. This is everything to pop culture at the moment, or at least the alleys of that culture that I traverse. Stranger Things is based on 80s Horror, Ash, Jack Burton, and Lucio Fulci all have current comic books on the shelves. John Carpenter makes records. Child Play's getting a TV show, and boutique Blu Ray imprints like Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome and Scream Factory and specialty streaming services like Shudder and Prime are making it possible for people to see movies they'd only ever heard of since those films disappeared off first-stage VHS rental shelves, never making the jump to disc. So why the hell would I not want someone to draw an outline around this behemoth?

The final Indiegogo is up now and ends on March 31st, link HERE.

Man, I walked into a book store the other day and hadn't realized Irvine Welsh released the 'Grand Finale of Transporting."

I felt so removed; I used to buy Welsh's books the day they dropped. But he's one of those authors I love SO much, his writing tends to steer my own, and I haven't had much space for that since starting to seriously work on Shadow Play, back in 2012 now. Of course, I've had a few long interstitial projects that have prolonged that, but really, this has been where I've learned to write genre, and there just wasn't room for a more literary pull in my voice. That's changing soon; I vowed to read at least one of the Welsh books I've missed this year, and now that there's a new chapter in the Trainspotters' lives, well, I guess I'll start there.

Wait, no. I believe I have to start with 2016's The Blade Arist, because I'm fairly certain this is what happens when Franco goes to America, which both amuses and terrifies me. Imagine Begby as your new neighbor. Nightmare fuel, that.

Playlist from 3/11:

John Cale - Black Acetate
Placebo - Meds
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Don Shirley - Don Shirley Trio
Erase Errata - Other Animals
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST
Wink Lombardi and the Constellations - 10 Songs
Earth - Phase 3 - Thrones and Dominions
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
Exhalants - Eponymous

Card of the day:

More Cups. Emotion and sensitivity as directed or acted upon by Fire. This is good. This will get me through the lag I've experienced in finishing the book, where daily life seems to be conspiring against my productivity. I'm saying it now: My birthday is on the 24th of this month. The reading of it will be done by then, which means a few days to listen to it, a few more to make changes based on that listening, and then it's done.

2019: March 11th

I'm about a week late on this one, but there's a new video for one of my favorite tracks on Windhand's 2018 opus, Eternal Return. Oh, who am I kidding? They're all my favorite tracks on this record. Awesome video, as well.

If you grew up in the 80s and 90s like I did, surrounded by shelf upon shelf of mass market paperbacks in the local library and Kroch's and Bentano's, and whatever that other bookstore in the mall was, you know, before the advent of big box, stand-alone bookstores, then you might have an inherent understanding of the horror paperback boom that permeated the pop literary world. You might have an understanding, but probably not of the scope of that boom. Unless you've read Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson's Paperbacks from Hell, in which two things probably happened:

A) You had an extremely entertaining romp through the history of Horror Literature and understand its timeline a hell of a lot better
B) Since reading Hendrix and Errickson's tome, you find yourself occasionally scouring the internet for copies of some of these lost gems, only to find prices repugnant.

But fear not! Valancourt Books has begun a Paperbacks From Hell reprint series - which you can subscribe to - that in most cases will feature the original paperback artwork. For myself, the price point of $16.99 for a MM paperback is better than eBay pricing but still too much for me to pull the trigger, but then again VB has not really solicited any of the titles I want yet, so I'm still keeping my eyes open for some goodies I spied in Hendrix's tome.

BTW - Errickson is a fantastic curator and played a large part in amassing the subject matter of PfH, and his Too Much Horror blog is definitely worth following.

So what are the paperback gems from days gone by that I'm interested in?

Michael McDowell's The Elementals because I am really interested in his Blackwater series, based on the fact that of all the books in Paperbacks from Hell, Blackwater sounds like it might be solid literature. Before beginning a series, however, I'd rather my introduction to McDowell's work be a stand-alone.

Because the pen name Peter Saxon is awesome, and because The Guardians series sound like a lot of fun.

Because the cover is subtle yet absurd and reminds me SO Much of my childhood, when covers like we find on all these books were the wallpaper to my life:

And finally, because I remember holding this one in my hands at a young age back in the early 80s at and almost checking it out of the Worth, Il public library, but never actually doing so.

Satanic Rock bands. Sounds like a great double feature when I finally get around to Hendrix's latest novel:

Playlist from 3/10:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Exhalants - Eponymous
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Earth - Phase 3 - Thrones and Dominions
John Cale - Black Acetate

Card of the day:

This is a very emotional card in respect to Earthly matters. There's revelation, although it might be confused at first. There's no inherent conflict, except maybe that of emotion taking over for a bit. Not really sure what this is in reference to, but I'll keep my eyes open today and try not to let emotions get the better of me.