For my fellow Sabbath Lads. Ozzy has never sounded so serene.
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The season opener of John Favre's The Mandalorian was so chocked full of goodness that I thought, for a moment, I might explode. Thankfully, someone is doing something cool with Star Wars.
Also, now that I've restarted my Disney + sub, I'm really looking forward to Wandavision. So much so, I think I'm going to start re-watching the MCU from the beginning, filling in those gaps I've missed along the way. What stoked my excitement?
I feel like I am about to very much re-engage with Marvel.
NCBD:
Pretty light week.
A new series from Aftershock Comics, Miskatonic looks like it will pit J. Edgar Hoover's "Red Scare" against the seedy underground world of Lovecraftian Death Cults. How could I not want to read this?
The old reliable, every-month-is-better-than-the-last.
Playlist:
Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies
Opeth Deliverance
I found an excellent podcast recently that has become increasingly important to the research aspect of writing Shadow Play Book II and spent some time listening yesterday. Mexico Unexplained is a series of quick but amalgam of informative historical facts and subsequent conjecture, and it's fascinating. Go to their site HERE.
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Patient and stable. Also, coming out the other side of that solitude we started today's post off with.
I'm not really a Beck fan. I mean, I harbor no ill will, and I say this in spite of the fact that I still stand by his 1996 collaboration with the Dust Brothers - Odelay - is in my mind one of the greatest records of the 90s. But other than that? Well, there's the odd track here or there that I'll catch somewhere and that makes me say, 'You know, let me give that guy's other albums another chance,' but it's always for naught.
But Odelay. FUUUAAAAHHHHCKKK. It's still brilliant. I'm generally not in the headspace for it, but when I am, well, once 'Devil's Haircut' kicks in, it always seems like I'll be listening to it for days. But that doesn't ever happen. I guess that's kind of the bane of albums you know so well and love so much - they become such a part of you that it almost feels redundant to physically go back to them too often. Yesterday was one of those 'Odelay' days, but this time, I decided to give the 2008 Deluxe Edition a whirl. The track listing is more than double the number of tracks on the original album, and although that sometimes annoys me, yesterday I fell into a beautiful abyss of some of the weirdest shit I have ever heard on what will always, in my opinion, be a pop record. Tracks like 'Electric Music and the Summer People', 'American Wastland', and the ominous Aphex Twin remix 'Richard's Haircut' left me slack-jawed. That said, no track made me marvel more than Inferno. It's just... junkyard broken computer funk perfection.
I might be listening to this one for a while...
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I've really been into Horror Short film lately. I started a new column on The Horror Vision where I'm posting some of what I'm finding, and metnioned a few here. Last night I found this one, and I thought it was extremely effective:
Playlist:
Low Cut Connie - Private Lives
David Bowie - Blackstar
Beck - Delay (Deluxe Edition)
Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
Molasses - Mourning Haze/Drops of Sunlight (single)
Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
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There's hidden assets here somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure how to find them. Lots of disks lately, and money has been on my mind. Really feeling the need to leave LA, to buy a home, to try and remove myself from the shit show. It's in my best interests to begin paying attention to things I normally ignore - might lead to a Cha-Ching.
Pallbearer is a band I've dabbled in a bit, but who have never clicked with me. Until this past Saturday morning. Up early despite my best intentions to stay in bed, I made a big 'ol pot of joe and sat down to do some writing, fired up my headphones and somehow wound up listening to the new album, Forgotten Days, two times in a row and thus, cementing an immediate bond.
Order Forgotten Days from Pallbearer's Bandcamp HERE or from Nuclear Blast records HERE.
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Holy smokes. Magnolia is releasing a Zappa documentary:
Playlist:
Pallbearer - Forgotten Days
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST
Paul Zaza - My Bloody Valentine OST
Orville Peck - Pony
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Sir Neville Marriner and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Amadeus (OST)
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A new beginning you say? Not entirely, but I like the optimism.
Thanks to Mr. Brown, one of the purchases I made on this most recent Bandcamp Friday was the newly released "Depends on the Horse..." album, recorded in quarantine. The records is probably the most ersatz of the Milkmen's, and feels a bit more like a B-side compilation. NOT A BAD THING. Dig the description from their site (use this link HERE. There's another Milkmen bandcamp page that keeps popping up when I enter their name):
"Actually... this volume of songs is the soundtrack to the first 36 episodes of the weekly program "Big Questions with The Dead Milkmen" which can be seen on The Dead Milkmen's YouTube channel. The songs were inspired by and created in response to challenges the Dead Milkmen made to each other on the program. Songs 1 - 4 are from "The 4-Track Challenge" episode (September 26, 2020). Songs 5 - 9 are from the Cover Challenge episode (July 11, 2020). Songs 10 - 13 are from the Owner's Manual Challenge episode ("Read the Manual", August 15, 2020). Songs 14 - 17 are from the Genre Challenge episode (June 6, 2020). And song 18 is the theme song from the show, composed and recorded by Dean Sabatino."
Here's one of my purchases. It's been a while since I posted anything by these folks, but they're Covers Vol. 5 is for sale on their bandcamp HEREtoday only and it included this little gem, which is one of my favorites from their ever-growing repertoire. You can also support Two Minutes to Late Night HERE.
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Yesterday I woke up with a splitting headache that lasted pretty much all afternoon, so I left work a wee early, had half an Inidca Pro Tab and dozed on the couch. While I flit in and out of sleep, the new, "WWII Haunted Nazi Boat" Shudder exclusive Blood Vessel played. I saw most of it, or at least to recognize its fun attempt at doing for Strigoi what Dog Soldiers is for Werewolves. I wouldn't say that I loved the flick, in fact, I'm not sure I liked all that much about it, but it's well made, if not exactly well written, and I'd definitely be interested to see what the creators do next.
After I'd woke and ridden out the last third or so of Blood Vessel, I hoped around and found a pair of Anthology shows I'd never heard of before and that were pretty good. Here's trailers, and I'll be posting a small piece on them over on TheHorrorVision.com later today.
Playlist:
Fen - The Dead Light
The Cure - The Head on the Door
Rollins Band - The End of Silence
Maggot Heart - Mercy Machine
Hall and Oats Greatest Hits
Opeth - Deliverance
Sinioa Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST
For anyone who grew up on the Southside of Chicago in the 80/90s, you undoubtedly remember the more serious of the two Classic Rock stations at that time were 97.9 The LOOP and 105.9 WCKG, 'CKG as everyone called it. I found a lot of lifetime bands that way - Zeppelin, The Stones, etc., but there were also always Classic Rock artists - often ones who had gone solo after aging out of famous bands - that had a few songs amongst their singles that really resonated without turning you into a fan of the artist. My CKG Spotify playlist is kind of an odds 'n sods of such tracks.
A couple of these songs rank among my favorite songs ever, plus, they're fun. Double nostalgia - mine and that I inherited from older folks when I was younger, whose fervor rubbed off on me.
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The Princess of Cups has the ability to make dreams come true. This is a concept I think most of us in this world have forgotten about, so it's nice to see it here now, when everything seems held hostage by one big question, and so many of my own personal 'plates' from this year are still spinning.
I fell back pretty hard core back into Beach Slang's 2020 album The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City. What a great record. Will in be in my top ten this year? I guess it's about time I start trying to figure that out.
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I've always wondered why people don't use James Duval in more movies. I love the guy, and here, surrounded by C. Thomas Howell, Ray Wise and James Hong, well, looks like a slam dunk to me:
See what I mean?
Playlist:
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Dance with the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny
Van Halen - 1984
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
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Realization of false promises? Is this America's indictment? What's that mean for the never-ending side show currently stressing everyone the F*&k out?
Monday night was the first night I came home from work since the clocks went back. I'd gotten out late, and by the time I arrived home, the sky was already beginning to darken. K was still at work, so I threw on my headphones and took a nice long walk into the Dusk and listened to Yob for the first time. I mean, I'd given a song or two a whirl before, but the music hadn't really made an impact on me then, for whatever reason. This time though, I began with a song a friend recommended - Marrow, the final track on 2014's Clearing the Path to Ascend - and the timing couldn't have been better. Perfect.
NCBD
A lot of good stuff this week!
And yes, even the final issue of Batman/The Maxx: Arkham Dreams!
Playlist:
The Velvet Underground and Nico - Eponymous
Meg Myers - Sorry
Naked Raygun - Basement Screams
Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend
Kevin Ayers - The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
New chapter in the Bret Easton Ellis serialized novel landed this week, and things are really beginning to get creepy. I'm really loving this as an addition to an already great podcast! Ellis' Podcast Patreon is HERE. In looking for an image to post, I found THIS insane little tidbit from a few months back. Ellis and Irvine Welsh writing a series together? YES PLEASE!
Also found out a friend of mine has been doing a BRILLIANT Quarantine Podcast called Cabin Fever. It began back in April, when all this was still fresh, and it's interesting to go back and hear other people's experiences as "essential" or "non-essential," and how either distinction affects their lives and the lives of the people around them. The cast covers everything: how they spend their days, how their roles have suddenly changed, what they're watching, insights into COVID, work, life, etc. It's all good stuff, and I've grown quite fond very quickly. Cabin Fever is up on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, here's widget:
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Full disclosure: This post is scheduled to auto-post at 12:01 AM on Wednesday, October 4th. I'm writing this section, and thus drawing the card below, at 6:21 PM Tuesday, October 3rd. I have not checked in on the election all day other than one small peek at about 9:00 AM. What was the card I was hoping for when I did my draw this morning, saw it was addressing the election and thus, prompted me to draw two clarifying cards? This one, which I just drew from the Raven deck after a rigorous shuffle:
By the time you read this, maybe the results will be in. Maybe this will be erroneous, a moot point. Or maybe, the old guard will have, as indicated by the guard, imploded. One can hope.
