Holy Wars

 

This cover RIPS! Hot damn, it's nice to hear such a spot-on cover of a song I love by a band I despise, especially since I don't have to have Dave Mustaine sing it, replaced instead by the inimitable Troy Sanders.

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Watch:

A friend at work recommended this new HULU flick directed by John Lee.

HULU is a platform I generally don't use all that much; incorrectly or not, I associate them with being a bit more 'family friendly' than aligns with my tastes, despite the fact that they have long been a sponsor of Beyondfest and pull out a lot of stops for Horror come every autumn with their HULUween. Still, with the new seasons of American Horror Story and its brand new spin-off American Horror Stories both moving to the 'FX on HULU' status, as well as their ongoing relationship with Blumhouse - mostly to middling results from what I've seen - they're definitely trying to keep abreast of the genre. And now, holy cow: False Positive is A24! 

(Have I mentioned that I'm starting to fear Horror is becoming too mainstream? No? Well, that's a discussion for another time, then).

So yeah, False Positive stars Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, and Pierce Brosnan, and it is creepy A.F. I will say, this isn't the A24 I'm accustomed to, exactly. There's a reductionist quality insofar as it feels more like a Blumhouse "Into the Dark" - which I think of as the calibre for the new "TV movie" format for the streaming age - than it does the A24 we see get theatrical treatment. Still, this is high-quality stuff, and it's definitely up there with the better flicks I've seen so far this year.

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Playlist:

The Kills - Midnight Boom

Chairlift - Something

Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste

Tape Waves - Bright

Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles) 

King Woman - Doubt EP

Sunken - Livslede

Spotlights - Love and Decay

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Perturbator - I Am the Night

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

Silent - Modern Hate

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1

 

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Card:

 Bull in a china shop, that's how I always read this card at first. I'm regrouping my strategy on this Nosleep serial I'll be posting soon (but not today). Don't want to come out of the gates strong and crawl to the finish line. 

The New King Woman is Vicious Fun!

 

Holy cow! A new King Woman track dropped two days ago and it's a doozy! Bloody Disgustingt mentioned an Elizabeth Bathory vibe, and while I definitely see that, even more I see the influence of Joe Begos's Bliss. Either way, Celestial Blues is out July 30th on Relapse Records, and you can pre-order it HERE.

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Watch:

After watching Cody Calahan's Vicious Fun last night, I'm thinking this may end up as my favorite movie of the year. If not numero uno, it's up there. What is for sure, at least thus far, is Ari Millen - who some will know as Mark/Ira/Rudy/a bunch of other clones on Orphan Black - seems cinched as my favorite performance of the year

 

This one's a BLAST, and I can't recommend it enough.

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Playlist:

The Kills - Midnight Boom

The Kills - No Wow

Entropy - Liminal

The Casket Lottery -  Survival is for Cowards

King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

King Woman - Doubt EP

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Led Zeppelin - I

Led Zeppelin - IV

King Woman - I Wanna Be Adored (single)

Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

Chairlift - Something

Polica - Give You the Ghost

Turquoise Moon - Sunset City

 

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Card:

 

Crash Course? Brain Surgery? Either way, I will try to keep my wits about me today.

Computer Blue

 

From possibly the greatest album of the 1980s. This will probably be taken down by the estate, even though I'm not trying to do anything here other than spread love for one absolutely amazing song. Listen to the keys below the surface. Also, just listen to the way this song does a complete transformation halfway through. I would be hard-pressed to think of a song that sounds more progressively 80s, and by that I mean it doesn't sound dated. Or nostalgic, exactly, but still futuristic, in the way that 80s Psyber Punk still feels futuristic, even though we've moved beyond or outright incorporated so much of its textures into the fabric of our everyday world.  

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NCBD:

HOLY SHIT! How are these covers just getting better and better? I believe this is the penultimate issue of the series, and I will most definitely be sad to see it go. I'll now follow Daniel Warren Johnson anywhere he chooses to go.

Issue #1 of Red Room has been banging around in my head for the last month, and I'm psyched to jump back into it with the second issue!

I didn't realize That Texas Blood was returning so quickly! Very cool; I loved the first arc and can't wait to jump into the second. A suitable replacement for Southern Bastards (for the moment).

The finale! I'll probably be re-reading this series start to finish now that it's done.

If that cover doesn't evoke Clive Barker, I don't know what does.

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Playlist:

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000 

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto 

Not a lot of music today, as I was fully enraptured with the 22nd installment of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards. This is not only the best thing he's written - hard for me to say that considering how much I love Lunar Park - but his readings have become wickedly engaging. The interplay between Abby Malory and young Bret blew me away.

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Card:

So, I canceled the meet-up with my old friend and postponed the posting of my nosleep serial. Lots of reasons to go ahead with both, and as this card suggests maybe I should have. The meet-up was a little outside my control, the nosleep postponement was all me second-guessing myself. Bad idea? Maybe, but I genuinely think there is something bigger the post can be than what it is. Better. I'll give it a week. Then it's on.

 

Babe, I'm Just a Spiraling Fool

 

This song will never get old. One of the first Zeppelin songs I heard, back in high school when I discovered them, and still a favorite.

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Watch:

I finally saw Kurtis David Harder's 2019 film Spiral yesterday on Shudder:

 

Really dug this one. Great flow; this film really makes you feel a mounting expectation for evil, and then delivers with a totally nihilistic ending.

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Playlist:

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

The Kills - Midnight Boom

The Black Keys - Magic Potion

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

The Fixx - Reach the Beach 

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I 

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Card:

Continuing a return to my original Thoth Deck: 

With my Reddit Nosleep series starting today and a meet-up with an old friend wherein I may pitch a collaborative project just because I love working with the person and haven't in a looong time, I'm definitely starting some journeys.

Halloween The Kills Vs. Candyman and the Midnight Boom

How about some music from The Kills to kick off our week? Kinda fits with one of the trailers below, so why not. Also, I was inspired to dig out Midnight Boom for the first time in quite a while yesterday and it's probably not going away any time soon. The Kills been absent from my listening habits of late, time to change that. I love this album.

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Watch:

I was finally able to sit down and watch Damian McCarthy's feature film debut Caveat the other day on Shudder. WOW. If Censor is almost guaranteed to end up in my top ten of 2021, I'd say the same for this one. I absolutely loved the suspense Caveat creates and sustains with limited location and budget. I can't wait to see what McCarthy does next, especially since this will no doubt net him a bigger budget:

Also, a couple of HUGE Horror Movie trailers dropped since my last post. First up, Halloween Kills, which, as I've stated here previously, I have some reservations about, but will definitely be plopping my arse into a theatre seat opening weekend, regardless:  

 

Next, a movie I have no idea what to expect from but am pretty excited for nonetheless.

 

Finally, this isn't a movie, but I've been waiting for it for a while now:

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Pixies - Doolittle

Valkyrie - Fear

Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

The Kills - Midnight Boom 

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun

The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

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Card:

 When things are too good to be true, we second guess them? This is (maybe) a direct commentary on my hemming and hawing about putting my first story on Nosleep. I know the story is good, however, I keep second-guessing how it will fit in with their guidelines. I'm posting the first installment Tuesday no matter what, so I guess we'll see. And with so definitive a statement, why worry?

Censor

 

Oh, 1990s music videos - so very easy to spot even if you don't know the song. I've had this one in my head for about a week, and it's nice to be kind of obsessed with the Pixies again! I read something recently that posited that, with Kim Deal's reduced input on Trompe le Monde, it's essentially pretty close to a solo Frank Black album, and thinking about that while spinning through it multiple times over the last few days, yeah. I can totally see that. Really matches up to that first Frank Black solo era (in my thinking, that's Frank Black - Eponymous up to and including Cult of Ray).

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Watch:

 

Censor dropped recently and I finally had a chance to watch it last night. Wow. I am so impressed with this flick, the feature-length debut by Writer/Director Prano Baily-Bond. Visually, this one has such a distinctive look, largely because of the lighting. Censor takes place in the 80s - during the Video Nasties era to be specific - but the film doesn't play up the 80s-ness that a lot of other films would. Instead, it lives and breathes in the textures of analog, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the set design and approach to the lighting. There are also ongoing tweaks to the aspect ratio, which sneaks up on you at strange moments and really adds to the otherworldly feel Baily-Bond executes in every single shot. At no time does this film rest on the laurels it establishes simply via subject matter. And Raised By Wolves's Niamh Algar kills it in the lead.

Also, goddamn Michael Smiley is fantastic in EVERYTHING.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - VSW OST

Vaguess - Bodhi Collection

Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Various - Playlist to Joe Begos's Bliss

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' 

Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots (Mono)

Diatribe - Odite sermonis EP

Sunken - Livslede

Bells Into Machine - Eponymous

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Card:

Well, The Moon card literally lept out of the deck at me when I went to do my pull, so I guess I'm misunderstanding or missing something. I have to say, I feel perpetually overwhelmed by Tarot lately. 

Ordinary Fascist

 

A little Bells Into Machines to start our Wednesday. If you're unfamiliar or haven't heard their 2018 Eponymous full-length, I cannot recommend it enough. I kind of forgot about this one after hearing it initially around the time of its release, almost like it made a lackluster impression on me. After digging it back out earlier in the week, I can't stop listening to it. 

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NCBD:

Seriously, I don't know how this many issues of ASM in such a short succession isn't getting on my nerves, but there's such a big picture going on at the moment, I just want to read a new one every damn week, and Marvel is pretty much accommodating me.

Finally! Home Sick Pilots returns with a new arc. Love this book; its weird mash-up of Horror tropes and Mech fiction is so unique and darn right amazing to take in at the eyes.

The climax of what is undoubtedly the best mini-series of 2021, and I absolutely MUST have this cover!

Not 100% certain I'm going to dig this book, but I'll give it a shot. We must be in the golden age of Comic Book Cover art, 'cause here's another great one.

I feel like TMNT must be bi-weekly at this point, because I just read 117 like a week ago.

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Playlist:

Bells Into Machines - Eponymous

Anthrax - I'm The Man EP

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Vreid -  Wild North West

Tennis System - Technicolor Blind

Steve Moore - VFW OST

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Card:

 

Two separate but easily juxtaposed events that directly preceded my pull last night caused me to have a breakthrough. I now believe I know what the Devil/Wheel cycle I've been caught in for the last week or so was trying to tell me, and I drew IV: The Emperor with that query in mind - am I correct in this revelation?

I'd say this means yes.