Not sure anything could have made me happier than finding out that Mike Doughty has a new project named Ghost of Vroom. Doughty's solo career is great, but I've kind of always had trouble getting past the dissolution of Soul Coughing, a band I would count as one of the most influential bands of my young adult era. Being that Ghost of Vroom feels more like it's in that particular wheelhouse, I bonded with Rona Pollona pretty much immediately. Also, what a great concept for a music video!
The EP, Ghost of Vroom 2, drops on mod y vi records this month, and was produced by Mario Caldato, Jr., better known as former Beastie Boys DJ/Producer Mario C.!
Finally got to watch Frank Sabatella's The Shed. I really dug this one. It seemed like a love letter to Fright Night, without directly taking anything from it. Can't wait to see what Mr. Sabatella does next!
I just posted the trailer for this one a few days back, so instead, here's an awesome poster! The Shed is steaming on Shudder right now, go check it out!
Have to say, recently, there's been more than a few stories - movies, comics, books - that have made serious inroads in updating the zombie mythos, which is exactly what The Shed does for vampires, simply by going full-in on the classic Vamp lore. Nothing new here, except a new approach to handling the old bloodsucker tropes. Maybe others will follow suit?
Playlist:
Anioma - Necropolis
Faith No More - Angel Dust
The Clash - Combat Rock
Ghost of Vroom - Rona Pollona (pre-release single)
Another song from the forthcoming first solo album from former Dillinger Escape Plan/current Black Queen frontman Greg Puciato. Child Soldier: Creator of God is out October 23rd, you can pre-order it HERE.
Watch:
Saturday night, K and I checked off a box and watched Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland. Man, I remembered this one being way better than it is. While it's hard to fault any slasher that uses a garbage truck for its first kill, Teenage Wasteland is mildly entertaining, but essentially little more than a perfunctory set-up to deliver a series of mostly uninspired kills.
Yeah, it kinda all goes downhill after the garbage truck.
Friday, we did John Wick 3, and I continue to be amazed at how much I like these movies. The location scouting is unbelievable, and everything in the series, from the costumes, to the lighting, to the choreography, only helps establish a very unique and opulent atmosphere for unparralleled levels of violence to unfold within. Hell, not even Halle Berry - who is almost always a "No" for me, did a fairly good job.
Playlist:
X - Los Angeles
The Clash - London Calling
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
The Babies - Eponymous
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Boy Harsher - Careful
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
X - Wild Gift
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Ainoma - Manhunter
Ainoma - Necropolis
Card:
Referencing the importance of maintaining a clear head, especially when confronted with or analyzing former setbacks. This is a huge nod toward my thought process this morning in the car, where I kind of went over a previous project I'd let wane due to a reluctance on my part to bond with what I and a collaborator had come up with for an entry point to the story. Tossing that key point aside, respectfully, I think I have a much better idea. I just need to be careful how I explain that to the collaborator.
I stumbled across Ainoma's 2019 release Manhunter purely by accident. After reading THIS a few days ago, I've had Richard Stanley's 1990 Techno-Horror masterpiece Hardware on the brain, and the cover art for Manhunter bares more than a passing resemblance to that film's murderous robot, the M.A.R.K.-13. That, coupled with the description "Grim Music from the DEAD CITY" caught my attention, and I like what I've heard. Ainoma hail from Russia, and you can pick up both Manhunter and its predecessor Necropolis on their Bandcamp HERE.
I have been in such an X mood for the last few weeks! Here's a favorite from their 1980 debut Los Angeles, surely the greatest album to reference my adopted hometown, out of probably a thousand songs that reference it. I need to dig back into Alphabetland soon, this year's all-original line-up X record, their first in some time.
Watch:
I'm working the weekend this week, so today is my day off! Other than writing, I'm hoping to squeeze in Frank Sabatella's The Shed, which just hit Shudder yesterday. I've heard good things about this one, and I feel like Shudder has been on a bit of a roll with new movies, so my hopes are high. Also, it's an RJLE release, and I don't think I've seen them release a bad flick yet. Here's the trailer:
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Santogold - Eponymous
Cults - Host (pre-release singles)
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - We Created Putin (pre-release single)
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Boy Harsher - Careful
Boy Harsher - Country Girl Uncut
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Public Image Limited - This is What You Want... This is What You Get
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Combat Rock
Windhand - Eternal Return
Jaye Jayle - Prisyn
X - Los Angeles
Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Card:
The Tens are always rooted in the most physical senses. Malkuth, the world. For the Ten of Swords in particular, where the hilts of the Swords are arranged to represent the Qabalahistic Sephiroth and the blades converge on and shatter the Six - Tipareth or the Sun - the idea is if you fight long enough, the only outcome is destruction. This is an important reminder for me at the moment; my Beta Reader has Murder Virus, and I've encountered a situation where I need to do some more work on it to smooth out a considerable bump in the road. There's two paths I can take - one where I do a lot of work, and write and re-write several chapters, and one where simply re-ordering certain parts might do the trick. According to the Ten of Swords, the latter may be the better way.
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine have a new record out this fall on Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, and if We Created Putin is any indication, Tea Party Revenge Porn will be the musical reaction of the trump years I have been waiting for.
NCBD: It is a very good thing I went in and picked up the three weeks worth of books in my Pull last week, because this week's NCBD has the biggest haul in a while. Let's start with the return of one of my all-time favorite books:
It's been a minute since Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #41, but I do not begrudge David Lapham the time off. On the contrary, this is one of the hardest working men in comics, so I'm one hundred percent behind the occasional hiatuses he takes. That said, it's good to have Beth, Orson, and the crew back!
New Locke and Key, you say? Yes, I only just read the entire original series at the end of last year/beginning of this one, but I'm definitely in on this two-issue series, especially because it leads to a Locke and Key/Sandman crossover later this year. Can't wait for that!
I'm still a bit on the fence with That Texas Blood, however, I plan on going back and re-reading issue one before plowing into two and now three.
Bliss number one made a pretty big splash with me, and I'm anxious as hell to see how the story continues.
The Plot returns with issue six this week. I love this return to the Ancestral Horror genre, so much so that I penned the first installment of my new "A Most Horrible Library" column on TheHorrorVision.com. Read it HERE, and watch for future installments to go back to a video format similar to my 2017 Evolution of the Arm series. I don't really have the time to write a regular column at the moment, but with a Video Column, I get to work with K again - she shoots and helps design the look of the show - so that'll alleviate me putting another project solely on myself.
The best thing about picking up all your books after they've been out for a few weeks is that, such as is the case with TMNT, I literally just read last month's issue a few days ago, so the story is still fresh in my mind. This series has been a consistent succession of awesome evolutionary moments for a lot of the characters in the TMNT universe that might have gone stagnant in a lesser series. Case in point, last month we got this:
I don't know if that makes anyone else out there as happy it does me, but I'm excited as hell to see more of "Leatherkrang!"
See what I mean? That's A LOT of books for one Wednesday! Feels good.
Playlist:
Thou - Heathen
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Santogold - Eponymous
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Card:
This one keeps coming up of late, and as I surmised on 8/20 when the Princess of Disks came up last, a signpost on the logic/emotion tug of war it's been reentering the Shadow Play world. Big breakthrough two days ago, not much since. But I've been a bit lost in my head, and reluctant to dig into the dirt and really start laying the foundation in prose. Time to pony up.
It's been some time since I broke out the Vitalic, but a few weeks ago this
song floated to the surface of my mind and I spent an afternoon at work
revisiting the French DJ's 2005 debut album, OK Cowboy. Good times. My
Friend Dario is such a perfect little electro-pop song that I'd imagine would
have been all over the radio in a sane world. If there's one thing the
intervening years since this record's release have taught us, it's that this
is most definitely, not a sane world. Sometimes, like Dario, don't you just
feel like driving too fast, taking your hands off the wheel and...
Watch:
Thesecond episode of HBO's adaptation of Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country aired last night and I have to say, this show is fantastic. HBO seems to know how to change story elements so that, while they are clearly trying to meet inclusive agendas, they do not sacrifice story elements. In fact, I'd say so far, between this and last year's Watchmen, the changes HBO makes improve the material. Again, as I said last week, in no way am I casting aspersions on Ruff's novel, because it's great. However, it does not feel like "pop" to me. This does, and the fact that anyone has made a Lovecraft-adajacent show "pop" blows my fucking mind.
If you're unconvinced, HBO has the entire first episode up on their youtube channel, so maybe give it a whirl. The episode opens with a particularly crazy, CG dream sequence, so don't let that convince you. The graphics are good; not great. About on par with those from Ash Vs Evil Dead. There's a lot of shit going on in this dream sequence and none of it's in the book, but seeing Jackie Robinson fight Cthulhu proved to be one of those things I never knew I wanted until I saw it happen:
After Lovecraft Country, as K and her mother sequestered themselves in another room to watch a reality show they have a long-standing tradition of watching this time of year, I settled in for a weekend wrap-up flick. I'm getting better at circumnavigating the 'paradox of choice' that streaming has inspired in me, where I flip through Shudder, Prime, Netflix, HULU, HBO and never settle on anything. Last night, I went straight to Shudder, saw that Jay Baruchel's new slasher flick Random Acts of Violence had landed, and settled in for what turned out to be a pretty damn fantastic viewing. Here's the trailer:
I really liked this flick! First, it was so good to see Jesse Williams, who you may remember from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods. Second, I pretty much instantly fell in love with the way Baruchel and cinematographer Karim Hussain capture the locations and sets here. They really know how to convey the mood of traveling the interstates that lay at the heart of this country. There's what I call "truck stop paranoia" seeping from the darkened highways, crappy motels, rest stops and dank bars with only ancient beer logo lamps for lighting.
Playlist:
Otis Redding - Otis Blue
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
The Haxan Cloak - Eponymous
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Ancestral Recall (pre-release single)
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Iress - Prey
Vitalic - OK Cowboy
Ritual Chair - Pain and Decay
Cult of Mary (Ritual Chair) - Praise
Ritual Chair - Brock Turner
Thou - Heathen
Perturbator - New Model
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
**
Card:
And before I even post this one, I've let something trivial at work influence an otherwise good mood. I'll need to fight my way back to a positive mindset, and the best way to do that is strap on my headphones and work.
A happy accident that while looking up music by another band, I stumbled upon a Daily Bandcamp article by Jordan Reyes spotlighting Ritual Chair's music. The name caught my attention, but the music is what caught my breath. I started with 2017's Pain and Decay, and quickly found I could not work my way away from Ritual Chair's bandcamp. Each successive piece I listened to helped grow a seed of horror and anxiety inside me, which is a good thing when you see where Hailey Magdeleno's music comes from, what motivates it, and where the proceeds go. By the time I arrived at this piece, which incorporates what the artist describes as a "random tape called Africa Praise 1" - which appears to actually be released as a different project by the same creator - I feel like I should have been ready for the harrowing funnel of sound that enveloped me, but I was not. This made for a distinctly unique listening experience, one I will probably attempt to recreate down the line, but will most likely fail.
Another thing that absolutely blew me away, and seemed like the best example of an artist giving a well-deserved 'Fuck you' to a deserving party who has thus far escaped the maximum desecration he deserves, is Ritual Chair has a release titled "Brock Turner."
The album art is his smug, cunt face, and the description is a terse indictment of his failed humanity. Mr. Turner deserves far worse than having an album named after him, but it's my long-held belief that sound and idea, when sculpted from outrage, anger, and frustration, can act as a kind of Sword of Will. Perhaps if enough of us listen to and talk about this recording, it will gain the power to steal his breath while he sleeps, leaving only a lifeless shell in his place.
One can hope. In the interim, all proceeds from this, and quite a few of Ritual Chair's other releases, go to The House of Ruth.
