I mentioned this one yesterday and then had to hear it. The whole record is just tough-as-nails bass playing by one of the masters. Hit play and prepare to bang your head.
NCBD:
First - the pre-orders for Behemoth Comics's Turbo Kid Prequel series is up! Go HERE if you are interested. Look at these tasty f*&king covers!
Next, here's this week's haul:
You see why I jones when a week goes by without an issue of Amazing Spider-man at this point, right? 67 just hit last week and here we are again!
Loving this series, especially as we continue to climb the tiers of antagonists who Geiger will no doubt eventually have to square off against.
One more issue to round out a very dark but somehow also extremely pleasant surrealist take on death.
Watching Peter Parker slowly become Venom is creepy and fun as hell.
I just can't say enough good things about this book.
Playlist:
QOTSA - Rated R
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Ghost - Infestissumam
Sampa the Great - The Return
Dance With the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1
The Foundations - Baby, Now That I've Found You (single)
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup (single)
Blur - Parklife
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Entropy - Liminal
Card:
Two days in a row, eh? Okay, I'm assuming someone is trying to tell me something I am not listening to. Time to take off the blinders and pay attention.
Heaps of praise to Mr. Brown for introducing me to Lindsey Buckingham's 2008 solo album Gift of Screws, an album I am fairly certain would never have wound up on my radar without the guidance from my friend. This is one for the ages - as Brown stated in a text recently, the whole thing really highlights his guitar playing, an aspect that often gets pushed to the background in Fleetwood Mac. Opener Great Day has some truly fantastic finger-picking, and most of the tracks - especially "Did You Miss Me" above - would have made stand out singles for the radio, if there was an outlet in the major markets for guys like Buckingham, who are more often than not relegated to the 'was in a classic rock band' category. Reminds me a bit of the first time I heard John Paul Jones' record Zooma.
Watch:
I haven't watched Richard Kelley's The Box since it was in theatres in 2009. After that viewing, I left scratching my head even harder than I did after my first viewing of his Southland Tales. Do I like either of those movies as much as I do Donnie Darko? Not at all - in fact, I don't even know if I can say I actually like either. Well, Southland grew on me, and despite the fact that it's a fractured mess, I like enough of it to say, "Yes." The Box though... after this second viewing I'm less convinced I like it than if I had just left things at the one viewing eleven years ago. That said, it's a conversation piece for sure, and pretty damned engaging, so this isn't a dis, just a renewal of the hesitancy I reserve for everything Kelley did after DD.
The actual viewing of this film leaves me a bit baffled and I think it's because in some way I do not possess the technical vocabulary to describe, Kelley filmed this to look like a tv show from the 50s and seeing it packaged with the expectations of a big-budget (well, not that big) Hollywood movie creates a kind of cognitive dissonance that makes it hard for me to reconcile. Also, there's an element of the film that involves people becoming transmitters for alien intelligence, and I think Kelley brilliantly worked this into the fabric of the film itself, into performances, camera angles, and dialogue, so that many scenes are just jarring enough to create a disconnect with the viewer.
I don't know. I'm not getting rid of my DVD copy of The Box or anything, but it may be another eleven years before I watch it again.
Playlist:
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
El P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
QOTSA - Rated R
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws
Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction
Lustmord - Heresy
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Small Black - Cheap Dreams
Card:
New ideas can free you from yourself. This is something I'm always glad to be reminded of because another side of the Devil is obsession or narrowing of vision, which is essentially anathema of a writer.
LOVING the new album from James Kent, AKA Perturbator. Apparently, there are those out there who find his new direction uncool, but I say you can't make the same album over and over forever. Here's a current favorite selection.
Watch:
Well, after hating part two, I went into The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It with probably as low of expectations as possible. Turns out, I dug it. Not as good as the first, and Hollywood Horror is almost always going to take a backseat to the indie stuff, but this one was good. The lighting and camera work especially stand out, and I really dig Vera Farmiga in everything, even if these movies are starting to treat her a bit like Jean Grey with her psychic ability.
You can hear more of my thoughts on The Conjuring 3, as well as that of my cohosts, on the newest episode of The Horror Vision.
Interesting side note, I wandered into the Comic Bug this afternoon and found out this had come out:
Two stories, both cool. The second a stand-alone and penned by Scott Snyder, the first the opening installment in a larger tale. The Warrens are not on hand, but I'm assuming they will be eventually.
Playlist:
Perturbator
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws EP
Harakiri for the Sky - Maere
Blur - Parklife
QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork
QOTSA - Villains
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series
Calexico - The Black Light
Card:
Yes, this is exactly the right card at the moment. Solitary introspection that nearly drives me mad.
FUCK YES! I'm a little late with this one, as I've been so preoccupied with the new Perturbator that I forgot Z&A dropped a new track and announced an album coming out sometime in early 2022. I think; I swear I saw a February date when I first went to this song, but I can't find that any longer, so maybe I'm wrong and we'll get the album sooner. That would be fantastic!
INTERVIEW:
Super psyched that my cohost on A Most Horrible Library, Chris Saunders and I got to interview comics legend Glenn Fabry this past week. Check out the episode on Spotify, Apple Music, any other pod-platform, or just right here on youtube:
If you're unfamiliar with Glenn, he's best known as the man who did every single cover for Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion's Preacher, still my all-time favorite comic. To say this was an honor would be an understatement indeed.
While talking to Glenn, we found out he has a Big Cartel shop, and I had to throw up a link. Glenn doesn't make royalties on almost anything he did cover-wise, so he's not exactly sitting on top of the world like Mr. Ennis is (deservedly so, but still). I picked up a couple awesome prints from Glenn's shop, and wanted to spread the word.
Glenn's Big Cartel is HERE, and his Creature From the Black Lagoon is NO JOKE.
NCBD:
Seriously, I think there was like a week this month without a Spider-man book and I felt the void! What has become of me?
And I guess because we had a week off, two spidey books this week!
Wrapping up what has been a fantastic series that truly is unlike anything else I've ever read. The solicitation logline, "Breaking Bad meets The Sandman" isn't exactly right, but it gets you in the ballpark, and I'd never take issue with such an over-the-top comparison because it did its job - it convinced me to take a chance that I do not regret.
Somehow I missed issue three of Dead Dog's Bite, so I'll be holding off reading this until I can pick that up, too.
YES! Issue 45 was my favorite comic of the year so far, so I can't wait to see what else the 90s has in store for Marcus and crew.
Cool series, but another one that I hiccuped and missed a few issues of. I'll remedy that by next week though. So glad to be reading some Larry Hama again.
This book continues to impress me, despite its over-the-top, almost classic Image feel.
Playlist:
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Harakiri for the Sky - III: Trauma
Silent - Modern Hate
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox
Zeal and Ardor - Run (Single)
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Card:
Super appropriate - Opportunites revolving past me in several areas, leaving me dizzy, uncertain and confused. Fighting to stand atop my decision and look at it all with a meticulous and discerning eye.
Any day we get a new Chelsea Wolfe track is a good day. This one is in conjunction with DC Comics and the Dark Knights: Death Metal series they're doing that I know absolutely nothing about except that I couldn't care less about it. Except, now I love this song. So that's one thing Dark Knights: Death Metal has going for it.
DC is releasing a full soundtrack for the series, which, if you're of a mind, you can pre-order in whatever format you like HERE. Tracklisting below:
Mastodon - Forged by Neron
Chelsea Wolfe - Diana
HEALTH, Tyler Bates - ANTI-LIFE (feat. Chino Moreno) Maria Brink, Tyler Bates - Meet Me In Fire (feat. Andy Biersack)
Grey Daze - Anything, Anything
Rise Against - Broken Dreams, Inc.
Manchester Orchestra - Never Ending
Denzel Curry, PlayThatBoiZay - Bad Luck
Carach
Angren - Skull With a Forked Tongue
Starcrawler - Good Time Girl
GUNSHIP, Tyler Bates - Berserker (feat. Dave Lombardo)
Greg Puciato, Tyler Bates, Gil Sharone - Now You've Really Done It
Show Me
The Body - Stone Cold
Earth
IDLES - Sodium
Soccer Mommy - Kissing in the Rain
That's a pretty interesting lineup, and despite my lack of interest in the comic, the artwork is cool and features heavily in the vinyl release.
Watch:
Planning on watching this over the weekend:
Also, after fighting through 30 or so minutes of Zack "Slo Mo" Snyder's Army of the Dead last week, I may try again. May.
Playlist:
Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)
Windhand - Split EP
Les Discrets
Lustmord - Heresy
Swans - The Seer
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Card:
Ah, I love a direct pull:
Dealing with an ongoing staffing issue on my team at the biorepository. Always tempted to say things I should not, so this is a great reminder to play it cool.
Violet Cold's album Empire of Love is a bit uneven to me, but that's because it swings BIG, and that's not a bad thing. This track was the first I'd ever heard of them - really a one-man project - when it came up in Apple Music's algorithm. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but it quickly gained favor. Then, yesterday morning, I realized I had this song irrevocably in my head, and as soon as I fired it up on my headphones, it felt like an ice-cold mouthful of water on a hot day.
This is a day late, but my Wednesday proved to be a beast.
This week's NCBD was considerably quieter than I've had in a while, for sure. Which is nice on the wallet, and the stack of books I still haven't read from last week.
This cover art is SICK. I'm thinking this is the issue where all hell breaks loose and I can't wait to see that!
Possibly my favorite comic at the moment, I'm really loving Daniel Warren Johnson's take on this character. This book reminds me of old TSR gaming, 80s style, where it felt like ideas, monsters and weapons from every corner of pop culture were being drawn together into one great, big beautifully pulpy soup. It's Daniel Warren Johnson's aesthetic, and it's enhanced by his art, which is just scratchy enough in the right places to feel like a throwback to the way comics used to look.
Feels like I've been waiting for this one for longer than however long it's been since The Last Ronin #2 came out.
A very solid historical Horror story.
Playlist:
Goatsnake - Breakfast with the King
Silent - Modern Hate
Vreid - Wild North West
Harakiri for the Sky - III: Trauma
Violet Cold - Empire of Love
Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
CCR - Eponymous
The Replacements - Tim
The Veils - Time Stays, We Go
The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)
