Fever Ray Live in an Abandoned Factory

I guess I had completely forgotten that Fever Ray released a new record earlier in the year. 

Historically, this is the time of the year when I go back and see what I missed or forgot about, and this was a big one. Great record. Even better - seeing them perform here for 

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NCBD:

Here's my Pull for yesterday's week's NCBD!

This final issue of the That Texas Blood spin-off/prequel The Enfield Gang Massacre will be out of my reach for a while, as my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar will be pulling it for my box over at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort, Il. No sweat, I haven't had time to read all four of the preceding issuues yet, so I'll probably just wait to do the entire series in one fell swoop once I have them all. Not like I don't have a ton of stuff to read, regardless.

Very excited to be two issues into the return of Phantom Road. I adore this book, and can't wait to see where this crazy ass alternate-dimension/Grindhouse story is going. 

Well damn. The last issue of X-Men: Red. I'm both bummed and excited to see how this Arrako civil war ends up, especially after that final panel last month.

Also, a couple of surprises, which I talk about at length on the newest episode of Drinking with Comics: NCBD & A Beer!!!

Really digging the Gargoyle of Gotham!

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Watch:

In preparation for an episode of The Horror Vision we're recording later today, I rewatched Demián Rugna's Terrified and When Evil Lurks. I can honestly say that the latter elevates the former and also that When Evil Lurks is an early-in-the-running nominee for best Horror film of the decade. 

Much like Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie's The Void did in the 2010s, this one inspires nothing less than tireless awe every time I watch it.

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Playlist:

Baroness - Stone

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Yawning Balch - Volume One

Yawning Balch - Volume Two

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Kings of Leon - Because of the Time

Blut Aus Nord: Disharmonium: Nahab

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

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Card:

My bandwidth is LOW, so today, just one card from Missi's Raven Deck:

VIII - Contemplate routines and make adjustments where needed. Interesting, as I feel like that's exactly what I just did by taking the shorter route for this Pull. 

Perturbator - Dangerous

 

I had no idea this existed until just now. Love it (even if I'm not interested in reading the series; I'd rather just re-read the novel for the fifth or sixth time). Still, I applaud Sumerian for using their record label chops to strengthen their publishing ventures.

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Watch:

Two weeks ago, I watched Quentin Dupieux's Deerskin. This movie instantly became an all-time favorite film. 

I'd not seen Rubber, even though I'd heard good things. I posted the trailer to Wrong back in 2013 but never ended up seeing it. Now, I'm kind of obsessed with seeing all Dupieux's films. We did an Elements of Horror episode that just went up, a deep-dive into Deerskin and talking about it just made me love it more. Unfortunately, there is no standard-issue U.S. Blu-Ray; however, if you have a region-free player, there's a Region B on Amazon right now for a little over $10. TOTALLY worth it. 

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Read:

After finishing Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth, I took a small detour from my next intended book and began re-reading the short stories in James Joyce's Dubliners. 

I like the idea of having a book of short stories I can go to here and there, and this is perfect for that. I'd never read all of these; this is a picture I found online of the edition I've had since sometime in late HS or early College, when I'm fairly certain volume-closing "The Dead" was assigned reading. I've been picking at these over the last few days, and will no doubt set it down soon to read my final book of the year, but while I'm on it, I'm loving the elegant prose and snapshot style, especially in "Eveline."

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Playlist:

Moderat - II

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

Perturbator (Feat. Kabbel) - Dangerous (single)

Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Opeth - Deliverance

Cocteau Twins - Garlands

Baroness - Stone

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Conflict/Struggle

• Eight of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Transformation

• Ace of Swords - A breakthrough of intellect

This is one of the more mundane discussions I've had "with the cards," but I'm reading today's Pull as a definite nod to the conflict that always permeates our household between K's mother and myself. It's the age-old story of the mother-in-law syndrome, and I hate to fall into these kinds of "Life Tropes," however, the struggle is real, brothers and sisters. The message imparted here would seem to be "use your brain, not your anger," as I tend to steam for a while and then verbally lash out. Nothing too untoward, but arguments occur and maybe this year they don't have to.

Nick Cave - A Rainy Night in Soho at Shane MacGowan's Funeral

 

My "Seven Days of Shane" may have ended a few days ago, however,  I couldn't pass up an epilogue when I saw this. Wow. A fitting tribute for an icon.

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Watch:

Matt Berninger and David Letterman in discussion? Yes, please.

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Playlist:

The Flesh Eaters - I Used to Be Pretty

Killing Joke - Epoynous

David Bowie - Black Star

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Bing Crosby - Christmas Classics

The Pogues - Fairytale of New York (single)

The Chieftains - The Bells of Dublin

Harry Connick, Jr. - When My Heart Finds Christmas

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Seven Days of Shane: Day 7 - The Old Main Drag

 

We finish Seven Days commemorating Shane MacGowan with the sadly autobiographical "The Old Main Drag," the second track on 1985's undisputed masterpiece Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. Shane talks very frankly about this song in that Crock Of Gold Documentary I mentioned earlier in this run, and it really added new light to not only that track, but the first two Pogues records in general. 

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Plastic:

It arrived.

 

I'll post my own video at some point - NOT an unboxing video, as I'm generally not a fan of those - but at this point, let's allow the professionals to speak for my absolute joy. Glad I backed this.

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Playlist:

Chris Connolly - LARGO 22

Bret Easton Ellis Podcast S7E41 - Moby Disc

Bret Easton Ellis Podcast S7E42 - Quentin Tarantino

The Flesh Eaters - I Used to Be Pretty

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

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Seven Days of Shane: Day 6 - Haunted w/ Sinéad O'Connor

 

Yeah, I know it's not the original version with Cait, but I couldn't really pass up posting this one, as we lost both of them this year.  

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Watch:

A few years ago, I read John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Handling the Undead and really liked it. A very quiet, contemplative approach to the "living dead,"

As has become my custom, I'm posting this trailer here but not going to watch it . I want to go into this one not having the slightest idea what to expect from an adaptation.

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Playlist:

Laura Cannell - Midwinter Processionals

The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Shane MacGowan and the Popes - The Snake

Opeth - Deliverance

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Card:

Lots'a Disks. Let's see here...

• Six of Disks - Success

• Seven of Cups - Debauch

• Five of Disks - Worry

All the emotional fallout I've thus far been too busy to experience in having the connection to my childhood home severed at the age of 47 is about to come crashing down. My folks are out of the house in South Suburban Chicago and into the new one in Clarksville. There's still work to be done unpacking and arranging, but just being there all day yesterday unloading the last trailer of stuff or watching the movers bring in their furniture - furniture I've seen in the other house all my life - and set it up in foreign rooms was enough to create a sort of disorientation in me that feels a lot like what the Debauch card looks like. Not poison, but murky. Murky emotions that the Success of finally finishing this months-long project has kickstarted.

First world problems, but problems nonetheless. 

Seven Days of Shane Day 5: You're the One

 

I'm really digging this first album Shane cut with The Popes, particularly this duet with Máire (Moya) Brennan. I seem to gravitate to any duet MacGowan does - the way he always uses the opportunity to juxtapose his hardened rasp with some of the most staunchly beautiful voices around.  This one feels very prescient at the moment. 

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Watch:

Among the trailers we saw before Godzilla Minus One, Bleeker Street's I.S.S. was the one that really stood out. Primarily because this one looks a bit too close to home. I mean, this is pretty much the scariest trailer I've ever seen:

The anxiety this trailer instills in me is uncomfortable, so much so that I believe I'm going to have to force myself to see this in a theatre. Funny how the things that scare us as younger beings change later in life. Based on the world we live in, I.S.S. feels especially frightening.

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Playlist:

Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST

Steve Moore - Bliss OST 

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

The Nips 'N' Nipple Erectors - Bops, Babes, Booze & Bovver

Shane MacGowan and The Popes - The Snake

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Rein - God Is a Woman

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Card:

From Missi's Hand-colored Raven Deck, a single card pull as an indicator as to how my day will go moving my parents into their new house.

Something will not be what it appears on the surface.

Seven Days of Shane: Day 4 - Whiskey Nancy

 

Live on Conan O'Brien in 1995, shortly after MacGowan was sacked from The Pogues for 'alcohol-related' issues. I have no experience with The Popes, other than what I've heard at other people's houses. I guess I didn't realize the chronology. I will say, so far, I like this first record The Snake better than I like those later Pogues records. That might be a knee-jerk reaction, time will tell, but I thought this made a nice time capsule of MacGowan's first year away from the band that most people - myself included - know him from.

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NCBD:

My pull for NCBD this week isn't a big one, but it's comprised entirely of things I am bubbling with excitement for.

I have to say, after taking a chance on last month's first issue of Szymon Kurdanski's Blood Commandment number one, I've been waiting for number two pretty impatiently. Kinda stoked about this book!

Here's one I know ZERO about - Andrew Krahnke's Bloodrick. I'm not sure what caught my eye here, however, in reading about it on League of Comic Geeks, I noticed a comment from someone who read this in its previously self-published iteration. This makes me happy, to see something go from self-publishing to being distributed by Image. 

I loved the Stuff Of Nightmares Halloween special in October, and I'm assuming that, regardless of the fact that Christmas Horror is not my favorite niche in the genre, I will like this equally well. This is just such a great book. No contest who wins the Horror Anthology war this year, with The Silver Coin still on hiatus.

Soundwave's on the cover and I'm hoping like hell he's in the issue! So far, Daniel Warren Johnson's take on the Transformers has a complete hold on me. 

Doom's X-Men? Huh. I'm getting a total "Oktober Guard" vibe here. 

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Watch:

Oh, that's why Bloodrik caught my eye!

I've been watching Genndy Tartakowsky's Primal on Max, and I am absolutely in love. For years, I've harbored ill will for any animation that isn't Cowboy Bebop or the original Transformers animated film. I have no idea where that came from, but it proved pretty all-encompassing, so a lot of shows/films friends recommended I passed on. This was a random find thanks to Walter and Ryan at Rick's Comic City and although the first episode grabbed me, it wasn't until two nights ago, when I couldn't sleep, that I became 100% completely invested.

There is such an amazing heart to the relationship between the two characters - one a man, one a dinosaur - that when they are in peril I become invested to a degree a lot of live-action SciFi loses. 

And they are always in peril. 

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Playlist:

Psychetect - Extremism

ThingsCon15 - Warren Ellis 

Yawning Balch - Volume One

Justine Hamline - Worst Locals Ever

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

Them Are Us Too - Part Time Punks Session (2015)

Bryce Miller - City Depths

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Wands

• Four of Wands

• VIII Strength

Not hard to read this one at all. Finally doing a bit of restructuring with Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, just to punch-up some of the relationships, and even though it's not a lot, it feels like a ton this close to the end. Apply Will and be Strong.