Bnny

 

A friend of mine posted about Bnny's new album Everything a few days ago. I'd never heard of this artist, so I took a little stroll into her music and wow. Blown away. I spend a lot of my time pretty keyed up on various incarnations of Metal these days - it's just what gets me through the days. But it's always good to counterbalance the chaos with some downtempo stuff, especially when it's this good and desert-flavored.

You can order directly from her Bandcamp HERE. 

As a strange aside, I messaged my cousin Charles last night to see if he'd heard this album and it turns out this was his upstairs neighbor at one point. I love those kinds of synchronicities. 

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Watch:

I don't know if this movie looks good or bad, hard to tell from this trailer. However, it's got one hell of an awesome-looking monster, so I'm in and will remain cautiously optimistic. Honestly, it's the guys in the movie that look like they might take it down a notch or two for me. Why is it that, in the 80s and even into the 90s, action actors could pull off military or tough-as-nails roles without coming off like douche bros, but now, that's almost always the case? What we need to be asking ourselves as a society is, how do we fix that?

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Playlist:

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto - Devil Music, Vol. 1

Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel

Motörhead - Bastards

The Damage Manual - Limited Edition

Crystal Castles - (III)

Bnny - Everything

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

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Card:

A reminder that movement and change are the antidote for stagnation.

New Beach House!!!

 

New Beach House to welcome us back to the land of the waking and working this Wednesday morning. I need it. The album Once Twice Melody drops... well, I don't know that I quite understand the release schedule for this one, so let me just post the pre-order link to the band's site HERE and copy and paste the itinerary directly from the video below: 

ONCE TWICE MELODY RELEASE SCHEDULE 

Chapter One: November 10, 2021 

Chapter Two: December 8, 2021 

Chapter Three: January 19, 2022 

Chapter Four: February 18, 2022 (LP, CD, and cassette available)

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Watch:

Holy F&*k, and that's all I have to say about this. 

I really hope none of this is red herring (I fish I don't particularly care for.)

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NCBD:

Another fantastic NCBD Wednesday. Short and sweet as far as the commentary this week, let me just mention how much I've grown to love Maw over the past two issues, and am very much looking forward to issue #3.

Oh yeah, and Primordial is just the bee's knees at this point. Andrea Sorrentino's art is next level. There are narrative mechanics at work even just in his layouts that represent enormous leaps forward for the medium - leaps I think it will be years before other people build upon. 

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Playlist:

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - The Helm of Sorrow

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine of Hell

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch: Censor OST

Slayer - Show No Mercy

Code Orange - Underneath

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Card:

Another nod to completion, which leaves me slightly perplexed. That's half the fun, though. I always think of this card as an indication of balance - or at least a suggestion to strive for it. And truth be told, my balance is way out of whack right now. So maybe that's what I need to focus on right now. If it wasn't for this damn day job...

Emma Ruth Rundle - The Company

I'll be totally honest - I totally forgot this record came out. Loading it into Apple Music and going to hit it later tonight, but if the production on "The Company" is any indication, this one is stunning. ERR's voice already has an ethereal quality to it, but this really raw, up-close feeling makes listening to her sing almost voyeuristic. 

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Watch:

Just last week I was talking here about everything releasing on November 19th, but it wasn't until about an hour ago that I realized, HOLY COW - that's in three days! That means Cowboy Bebop is in THREE DAYS!!! Here's musical genius Yoko Kanno going behind the scenes on the music for the show, which is the best music from any show ever.

Wow. I know what I'm doing Friday.

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Playlist:

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

NIN - With Teeth

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

DEADLIFE - City of Eternal Rain

Bnny - Everything

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full 

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

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Card:

Well being. Completion. These things are normally very abstract concepts in my readings, as I tend to interpret everything as being about my writing. However, writing has suffered, what with this insane work schedule, the massive open loop of the move looming, and the often debilitating exhaustion that has come with both of these. I get down about this, and that adds to the weight of things, but then I draw a card like this and realize I'm in control of how much these things affect me. I don't have to stay ten hours at work. I don't have to obsess over the move. I can fight back and clear some time and headspace for myself. 

Zetra - From Within

 

Heaven is an Incubator recently posted about the upcoming From Without EP that drops in January (pre-order HERE). I'd never heard of the band, and when I clicked over and heard the 1-2 of Life Melts Away that opens From Within, well, I was totally sold. 

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Watch:

So I made it through Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass. Not an easy task until the last three episodes, which ended up really coming through and making the rest of the show worthwhile. Not that it's terrible, but a lot of the 'aging' make-up used is pretty bad, and the lead character is just pointless and annoying. I mean, really. He ultimately serves no purpose that could not have been collapsed into another character. Ah well, in the end, I really dug the juxtaposition of religion and the supernatural, so it's a recommendation, although I can pretty safely say I'll never watch this one again.

Next? Castle Rock! I've been meaning to watch this for, well, years now, and I'm finally doing it. Three episodes into Season One and I'm digging it. Fantastic cast. Here's the trailer:

I've read a pretty fair amount of Stephen King, but not enough to deftly spot every reference in this one, so I'm gingerly taking mental notes and will look up all the references afterward. The obvious one here is Shawshank Prison, which I didn't realize played such a big part in this first season's story. Very cool. 

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Playlist:

Anthrax - Among the Living

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Bnny - Everything

Hotel Decor - Could It Take Me Any Longer EP

The Fixx - Reach the Beach

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees

Zetra - From Within

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Card:

A reminder that methodical approaches to projects and problems are the way to go. Timely, as I have one big, open-loop issue in my life right now - the eventual move - and on any given day, it feels over-fucking-whelming.

RIP Dean Stockwell

I'm a couple days late with this but talk about shitty news. Here's to your fuck, Ben.

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Watch:

I'd never seen William Malone's 1985 Creature, but I grew up seeing the VHS box cover art on the wall at the local video story and been curious as a kid. 

Somewhere in the intervening years I completely forgot about this one, until Vinegar Syndrome announced a new, restored version they're releasing at the end of this month. Pre-orders are closed - I didn't act fast enough while I tried to figure out if it was worth spending the money on when I'm still really limiting my frivolous expenses in preparation for moving across the country - but I believe will go live again for VS's Black Friday sale. 

 

So is Creature worth it? Well, as I stated in my quickie Letterbxd review, this film isn't great and it's not even really good, however, I feel like there are echoes within echoes that lead me back to this one. Probably the best of those 80s Sci-Fi Monster-in-Space Horror flicks that ballooned overnight as a response to the success of Ridley Scott's Alien, Creature reeks of the B-Movie, down-n-dirty pulp atmosphere that a low budget required filmmakers excel at in order to make up for the otherwise lack of expensive sets/props/production value. And from this era, that's not a bad thing in my book. Well, not in this case, anyway. Creature is a pinnacle of the zeitgeist landslide of cheap and fast Sci-Fi that created a zeitgeist in the 80s, one that washed up on the shores of comics, role-playing, and all kinds of other geek-centric mediums. Watching it for the first time at 45, Creature felt like a well-spent hour and forty-odd minutes that triggered all kinds of peripheral genre memories, or as I've come to think of them, PGMs. So yeah, I'll probably plunk down the $$$ for this one. Would make a fantastic double feature with Richard Stanley's Hardware. 

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Playlist:

Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Soviet Soviet - Fate

Motörhead - Ace of Spades

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Shake the Sheets

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In

The Who - Live at Leeds

Odonis Odonis - Spectrums

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

The Fixx - Reach the Beach

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Card:

Keeping a keen eye out for portents and omens today.

Cellular Death!!!

 

This album is really one of my recent stalwarts. I've come to love every song, but it's an intense journey and often, I don't make it all the way to the final song. The last two days I've really had to knuckle down on the physical side of work, and using this record really helps me conquer exhaustion. When I hit "Apoptosis" this morning, it felt like a revelation, so I wanted to share it here.

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NCBD:

Jeff Lemire's Mazebook has really become one of the main books I look forward to. Pretty cool, considering I almost skipped it altogether. 

I guess I jumped the gun on Venom #1 last week. Or it was delayed? I'm not sure. Either way, I'm still not going to be lucky enough to snag this variant, but with a gazillion covers to choose from, I'm sure I'll find something good.

I know nothing about What's The Furthest Place From Here except the pedigree of the creators. That's enough to have me pretty freakin' excited.

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Watch:

It's looking like come November 19th there is going to be a serious lag on Netflix. First Cowboy Bebop premieres, now a new Horror tv show from Train to Busan creator Yeon Sang-ho:

This trailer runs the gamut from what looks like a home invasion thriller to a fight scene with creatures that look like they'd be right at home in a Marvel movie. Cowboy Bebop takes precedence, but I'm pretty curious about this one.

Now, all we have to do is catch up and watch Midnight Mass, Doom Patrol Seasons 2 and 3, Squid Games, Castle Rock 1 and 2 (finally!), plus have a  full Stranger Things rewatch, before.... oh fuck it. This one will end up on the list.

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Playlist:

Small Black - Cheap Dreams

Motörhead - Ace of Spades

Arctic Monkeys - AM

Blood Red Shoes - Get Tragic

QOTSA - Era Vulgaris

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Anthrax - Among the Living

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

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Card:

I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this at the moment, so we'll just have to see. 

This Pallid Mask is one of the Stranger Things I've Seen...

Some friends recently saw High on Fire at a small venue in Chicago and hearing them talk about how awesome it was really made me miss seeing this band live. Over the years, I've seen Matt Pike and crew several times, one of which was at the Viper Room in Hollywood - a venue that felt waaay to small to contain a sound as big as theirs. Thinking on this, I decided to dig back into their music, only this time, I started with their most recent records and began working my way backward. 2018's Electric Messiah is an album I have not spent nearly enough time with, and running through it the other day, I realized that while I definitely think it's the weakest of the band's six albums, it still contains some absolutely devasting tracks. This is one of them.

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Watch:

Another Stranger Things teaser for Season four!

 

I really can't wait for this next season of Stranger Things. K and I need to start that rewatch of 1-3 soon.

 

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Playlist:

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Zetra - From Without E.P.

Odonis Odonis - Spectrums

David Bowie - Reality

The Clash - London Calling

Pink Milk - Ultraviolet