New video for John Carpenter's Alive After Death, from the forthcoming album Lost Themes III: Alive After Death, out February 5th on Sacred Bones Records. You can pre-order the record from Sacred Bones HERE, or, do what I did and pre-order the Wax Work/Sacred Bones collab like I did HERE, although, without checking, there's probably a pretty good chance this one is long since sold out.
Watch:
K and I finished the new and apparently final "season" of Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Hot damn I love this show! Here's a cool little bloopers reel Netflix dropped on youtube a bit ago. It's cool to see everyone having fun between takes.
Playlist:
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Ravenous Wolves - Stories and Pictures
Ravenous Wolves - A Horror of Shades Demo EP
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
I'm way late to post a tribute to MF Doom. I love this guy, but honestly, haven't listened to him on a regular basis if at all in quite some time. One of the 'methods' to my creative process is curating (read: micromanaging) the media I consume, and just like I haven't read any of the novels Irvine Welsh has released since Skag Boys - and he's one of my favorite authors ever - I very rarely listen to Hip Hop. RTJ4 broke that mold a bit this year, and if there was ever a time I felt like I needed to step out of my own headspace and try and reconnect with the world around me, it was the summer of 2020, hence I dialed back in a lot more Public Enemy, Kendrick, etc. But a lot like Guru and his Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz, MF Doom, or perhaps more accurately, Doom and Madlib's 2004, one-time collaboration Madvillainy, I just haven't gone back there in quite some time. Doom's recent death made me revisit the record, and move beyond it to some of the stuff I missed.
READ:
I finally finished my re-read of the entire Gideon Falls series by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. I will say, great book, great ending, but the abstract, Twin Peaks-meets-Grant-Morrison-like premise and evolution of the book left for a slightly frustrating aftertaste. Still, really cool series and, reading it in a binge is a totally different experience than reading it monthly/yearly, as you really see how much heavy lifting Andrea Sorrentino's art does. The issues fly by at about five minutes a piece, so there's a cumulative frenzy effect after you pass the half-way point.
The art in this book really blows me away. I don't normally bond this strongly with the art in the stuff I read, but this... this really transcends a lot of what people are doing to push the medium. And while some of it is obviously influenced by and predicated on books that Grant Morrison and various artists conceived over the last 25-30 years, Mr. Sorrentino really stands on his own.
Playlist:
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta: Saturnarian Poetry
The Used - Vulnerable
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Card:
Illumination.
This really feels like where I'm at in this particular moment. The best thing I've done in a while was take yesterday off work. I filed the Copyright for Murder Virus, got Jonathan Grimm the specs to do the art (and he already sent me a mock-up that far surpassed what I had in mind), and my mind and body feel rested. It's been a few weeks since I could say that.
From the forthcoming album Spare Ribs, out January 15th on Rough Trade. Pre-order HERE. Thanks to Mr. Brown for reminding me about this, as the Mods are always one of those bands that slide right off my radar when I'm not actively listening to them.
'Cast
My perpetual co-host Chris Saunders and I recently started an all Horror comics and literature spin-off show under The Horror Vision umbrella. The first episode of A Most Horrible Library went up early Monday morning, with more to follow on a somewhat regular basis.
This show is kind of our way of going back to substituting a new show for where Drinking with Comics left off; I'm still hoping to resurrect that after things go "back to normal," as it is primarily a live show, however, I'm not really one who believes things will go back to normal anytime soon, so in the interim, we have this as an outlet to talk about all the great Horror-centric reading out there. A Most Horrible Library will release under the same stream as the regular Horror Vision show, so no need for a new subscription.
Watch:
After working our way a little over halfway through the fourth, apparently final "part" of Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina over the last two nights, K and I rounded out our Monday night with the first of two episodes HBO dropped yesterday of Alex de la Inglesia's 30 Coins.
Holy smokes - this episode had the best monster I've seen since The Ritual a few years back. Mind-boggling and totally terrifying. I'm really looking forward to watching this one weekly.
Currently watching 1993's Body Melt on Amazon Prime. I've been feeling run down and a back-ache/stomach pain combination's reduced my sleep to less than I need to function, so I took a re-set day from work and plan on doing pretty much nothing. I actually started trying to rewatch Adam Simon's Brain Dead, which is also on Prime, however,the transfer to digital looks like it came off a deteriorated, second-hand VHS, with that dreary old 4:3 aspect ratio that doesn't work on anything not filmed to specifically have that effect. In looking it up, I see that Shout/Scream Factory transferred Brain Dead a few years back, so I'm hoping that pops up somewhere; I've never seen Brain Dead in its entirety, and it's been on my list for a while.
So far, Body Melt's doing the trick, though, and while I'm rarely interested in what Vinegar Syndrome releases, there are exceptions, and this would be one of them, and they did a pretty good job cleaning this one up for the digital age.
Playlist:
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Orville Peck - Pony
Soundgarden - SOMMS
Them are Us Too - Remain
Thou - Rhea Sylvia
Mrs. Piss - Self Surgery
The Blues Brothers - Briefcase Full of Blues
Muddy Waters - Electric Mud
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Goatsnake - Trampled Under Hoof
MF Doom - Operation: Doomsday
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Van Halen - 1984
Iress - Prey
The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
Belong - October Language
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Freaks)
Card:
First spread of 2021:
The Queen of Swords is definitely a defining force in my life, or at least has been over the last year or two. One of the reasons I do all this logging is so I can look back through the blog and track influences and the like, and when I search Queen of Swords, I see it came up five times in 2020. Thus, reading in the conventional Past-Present-Future positions, we see the Queen of Swords or the Airy Part of Intellect, ie sharpened perception as the Present and the Idea as a concise statement fortified by Knowledge (Past; 6 of Cups) and the balancing of the many tiers of that Intellect/Idea as a challenge to be overcome (Future; 10 of Wands) in the near future.
I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, however, this year is different: More Creedence. Simple and easy to do, as every time I fall into a binge with this band - and it's been over a decade at least - I remember just how much I love them, and how much they influenced my early guitar playing. Also, they remind me to no end of my good friend JFK, who I haven't talked to in some time and really need to reach out to.
Watch:
I completed my current re-watch of Cowboy Bebop. Man! For someone who doesn't really get into animation, this has got to come in just under Twin Peaks in my 'Favorite Things Ever' category. I love it so much. The final two episodes - "The Real Folk Blues" parts 1 and 2 always blows me away, and the one major regret/gripe I have about that vinyl edition of the score that came out this year is the song of the same name - which Bebop fans know as the ending credits music - is not on it.
Like Twin Peaks, this is a show where I never skip the intro or outro credits. Ever.
Playlist:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
Thou - Rhea Sylvia
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color
Alice in Chains - B-Sides and Unreleased Playlist
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Tomahawk - Oddfellows
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Jóhann Jóhannsonn - Mandy OST
Goatsnake - Breakfast with the King b/w Deathwish (single)
More new Besnard that I'm trying really hard not to listen to in anticipation of sitting down with a joint and the entire new album - The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, out January 19th (digital) and 29th (physical) - and just melting into the fucking music.
Pre-order the record HERE.
Read:
I have read a lot lately. First, at the recommendation of my good friend and Christian Fisting co-founder Joe.Baxter, I fell into Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder novels pretty hard, devouring Books one and two in about a day each. This started as research for a character I'm writing in Shadow Play Book Two, but quickly became the kind of obsessive read that forces me to relegate all Block to weekend reading only, lest I stay up all night on a work night rabidly flipping pages.
Next, I finally picked up Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians. After reading Jones's Night of the Mannequin a few months ago, I've been eager to get to this one. Halfway through in two days, it is not disappointing at all, so there will be more SGJ in my future.
Also, thanks to Jonathan Grimm, who tipped me off that Kindle was having a Marvel Masterworks sale on the entire original Chris Claremont run of Uncanny X-Men. I picked up the first five volumes, which fills in most of the gaps of what pre-dated the issues I have in physical form, including the classic Giant Size X-Men, which introduced Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Sunspot (fuck him, he stayed for one mission and left), and Thunderbird to the team.
Playlist:
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms
Four Stroke Baron - Planet Silver Screen
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Eponymous
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
Card:
Not about me at all, I think, but a confirmation K will be getting her promotion.
New Crosses! No word that I see of a release date yet, but what a way to round out the year!
Favorite Horror Films of 2020
Over on The Horror Vision, we did our "Favorite Horror of 2020" episode this weekend, and as I type this the episode should be hitting all major streaming platforms. Here's an embed of the youtube, although this and the IGTV version are considerably truncated for time compared to what you can stream from Spotify and the like. Either way, here are our picks:
Watch:
This was one I had not even heard of until I watched it on Christmas Eve. HOLY cow. This one would make a fantastic double feature with Jeremy Saulnier's Hold the Dark (time for a rewatch!), there's such a stoic reverence for violence. Easily slid into my top ten of the year, as evidenced by the episode of The Horror Vision above. This is director Shawn Linden's third feature, and you can bet I'll be seeking out his first two films - The Good Lie, and Nobody - in short order.
Playlist:
Howard Shore - Crash OST
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Hollywood (pre-release single)
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Doves - The Universal Want
Nat "King" Cole - The Christmas Song
The Blueflowers - Relapse EP
✝︎✝︎✝︎ - The Beginning of The End (pre-release single)
Calexico - Seasonal Shift
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
The Blueflowers - Relapse EP
Card:
Being that the standard reading of this card is the beginning of a new project, and I'm in the midst of wrapping one and finishing another, I'm not quite sure how to take this. There's also the "Big influences" reading, and although I'm not sure how to interpret that on a surface level, I suppose I should be on the lookout for inspiration.
