14 Days 'till Halloween: New All Them Witches

 

An absolute stunner! This new All The Witches video released yesterday does that rare thing, it takes a strong emotional song and marries equally strong emotional imagery to it. These guys are truly a level above.

"Rats in Ruin" is taken from the album Nothing is Ideal, which is available for purchase HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Thursday Shudder dropped the new film The Mortuary Collection by Ryan Spindell. I wasn't expecting this one to be what it was at all. The Mortuary Collection is very much cut from the same cloth as Trick r' Treat, with a healthy dose of classic Spielberg. The music is swelling, majestic, and sometimes hammy, but only in the right places. Same with the story and acting, all around a knock out. If you're a Tim Burton fan, a Michael Dougherty fan, or a Neil Gaiman fan, this is for you:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

Also, yes, I am most definitely aware Roseanne is not a Horror film, however, their classic Halloween episodes from my youth fit perfectly into my 31 Days of Halloween, another reason I'm glad I modified the name and nature of this annual section. That season two Halloween special - the first the show did - is still a damn knock out, and I had not seen in since it aired in syndication way back in those original few years of the original show.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - October Rust

Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets

The Misfits - Static Age

The Misfits - Earth A.D.

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

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Card:

Reminding me to take care of the trademark proceedings I began recently for The Horror Vision after finding out someone else started a podcast of the same name a year after we did.

15 Days 'til Halloween

Because I can't seem to get enough Type O this year. Well, that's every year in Autumn, but I suppose I'm smoking more pot this year, and it's making me appreciate them in a way I don't normally get to relive these days. Big difference between having a few beers and listening to music, and smoking out with one. Especially one you've loved for this long. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9

Yeah, so I'm hearing a lot of talk that people feel Bly Manor isn't as good Hill House. To each their own, I suppose. Both series are two distinctly different things, and I don't see how, for myself, I could compare them. I loved both, and I watched them two years apart, so I do not feel qualified at the moment to compare them. I will say, the finale of Bly Manor really dug into the heart strings. A class act all the way around the board on this one.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - The Origin of the Feces

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Type O Negative - October Rust

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1

Ritual Howls - Into the Water

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digi pak)

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Card:

Seeking guidance. 

16 Days 'til Halloween

Because Ritual Howls' 2016 album Into the Water is one of those perfect albums, some of the individual songs that make up that perfection get taken for granted. This is one of those. Although, honestly it's hard to hear this in a way that doesn't lead directly into the next track on the album, 'Coils and Magnets'.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

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Playlist:

Halloween Playlist

St. Germain - Tourist

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Prince - Sign O' The Times

Deftones - Ohm

Jucifer - L'autrichienne 

Chris Connelly - Sleeping Partner

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

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Card:

Getting the wheel turning again on several things that are in need of closure.

17 Days 'til Halloween

It's been nice to finally get the first album by my old band Darkness Brings the Cold digitally distributed. I recorded this album roughly fourteen years ago - I finished it shortly before moving to LALALand. There's more to come, as the singer/songwriter Dennis Hellmann and I recorded by ourselves before putting the band together, and then via email after I moved. The stuff before is great but a little rough around the edges at time, especially when other collaborators are involved (not the guys in the eventual band). The stuff after is great, and I have no qualms about releasing it as it stands now.

For the record, I have zero shame in liking this music so much because frankly, all I did was play the guitar, and on every album but this one, I never heard any of the songs until after they were finished and a full album. When we were working by email, sometimes that was months. There's still one we recorded ten years ago that I've never heard (massive production stall, and then some). Dennis wrote almost all the songs on bass with an Acid Pro backing track, then I came in and laid guitar. In the case of this particular album, Devil Swank, Vol. 1, former Tub Ring drummer Dave Tavares - a long-time friend well before this band - and the dearly departed Jeremy Musika helped Dennis and I re-arrange preexisting material for a four-piece band. It's nice to finally get this stuff on streaming platforms so I can seamlessly interject it into my Halloween playlist.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

reef frequent - Geolocationism

Jucifer - War Bird

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Card:

Balance can be easily upset.

18 Days 'til Halloween:

I know I post a lot from these folks, but their covers are always so damn awesome. This one really made me laugh this morning, not because it's funny or they're making fun, but because it just looks like they are having such a good time covering this classic Ozzy song which has kind of slipped into the seat cushions of my life. Thanks for the reminder guys - gonna fire up Diary of a Madman now.

You can support Two Minutes to Midnight HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

I'm really trying to mix up the 31 nights of viewing this year, however, there are a few films that are absolute must-watch entries every year. Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses is one of those. Here's the opening scene, which next to the opening scene from Christopher McQuarrie's 2000 Way of the Gun, is my favorite intro to a movie ever:

 

See? The level of humor and unease mix so well in this scene, and that could not have been easy to do.

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The Horror Vision:

Here's the newest episode of The Horror Vision - our 2 year anniversary episode no less. Also available on all streaming platforms.     

  

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Playlist:

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

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Card:

Wild, carefree creative impulse. 

19 Days 'til Halloween: Skinny Puppy - Morpheus Laughing

 

I've been hip-deep in old Skinny Puppy records and it feels great. It's been a while since I've sunk this deep into theirt catalogue, and I've even begun making inroads into listening to some of their later records, beginning with 1996's The Process, a record I avoided when I was younger because of all the hulabaloo around its release. I have to say, other than the first song - which is the only track on the record that was recorded at their old Canadian studio - I'm not entirely convinced I should go any further. Last Rites always just seemed like a perfect place for their existence to stop.

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31 Days of Halloween:

We did the first two episodes of Mike Flanagan's new The Haunting of Bly Manor yesterday for our main entry in 31 Days of Halloween. Really good. Flanagan's craft continues to evolve, his ability for total immersion in the worlds he creates among the best out there. Based on the works of Henry James, basically wrapping all of his ghost stories up into one narrative, I can't wait to see where this goes.

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor (episodes 1 & 2)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

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Playlist:

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights

Skinny Puppy - Inquisition EP

Naked Raygun - Raygun... Naked Saygun

Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Van Halen - 1984

Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park

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Card:

 

This card suggests a reserve of quiet strength and a domestic outlook. This is interesting when I juxtapose those concepts with my own continued estrangement from the state in which I live. Over the last few months, I've begun to seriously long for transporting my life with K to a more reliable, affordable, and low key location. Small town life sounds amazing to me. I think some of this is just a natural reaction to all the insanity the last four years have produced, however, I am not foolish enough to think that if captain hairdo gets voted out things will change or get better. In fact, regardless of the outcome - in which I definitely hope captain hairdo is ousted - I think things are only going to get worse. This is where that reserve of quiet strength comes in handy, and I'm happy to be reminded of it now.

Sunday Bandcamp: David Borden

I knew nothing of David Borden until my good friend Chester sent me a link to the above track this morning. I must say, I went in blind, having only just woken up, and was immediately entranced. This led to a google-storm that finished at the Bandcamp page HERE where you can buy this wonderful re-issue of Music For Amplified Keyboard Instruments for only $8.25, lovingly released by Cleveland, Ohio's Spectrum Spools. This is the label also responsible for Belong's October Language, one of my favorite ambient or soundscape records in the last ten years

 

From the Bandcamp page: "If there was ever a missing link in American Minimalism, David Borden is that link. He not only composed, innovated and performed in the peak years of this imperative movement, but did so on his own terms, with a startling lack of recognition for his revelatory contributions to contemporary musical history."