New Album From Lustmord

 

The first teaser for the upcoming Much Unseen Is Also Here, the new album from Lustmord, available on March 15. Pre-order from Pelagic Records HERE.

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Watch:

The other night, I fell asleep in my hotel room watching B.D. Clark's 1981 SciFi WTF Galaxy of Terror. Here's a trailer:

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. First, great cast. Where else can you see Eddie Albert, Sid Haig, Grace Zabriskie and Erin Moran (Joanie from Joanie Loves Chachi) in a third-rate Alien knockoff. No disrespect - I'm sure everyone involved in this production knew what they were making when they filmed this. Still, this was a good time, even if the ending featured some pretty bad writing in the style of "Make it a bunch of indecipherable and abstract gobbledegook and people will think it's just too smart for them to understand."

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Read:

While at The Comic Bug two weeks ago, I flipped briefly through their back issue bins and found this:

I know NOTHING about Machine Man, even though this was put out in that magical comic book year 1984. This would have been when I was first dipping my toes into comics, and I know the cover layout for this era of Marvel Comics so well that it creates an instant nostalgia bomb in my heart. In this particular case, I just could not pass up this beautiful Barry Windsor-Smith cover. This is the perfect example of what I keep referring to as "Hobby Store SciFi," even without knowing the contents.

Reading this last night, I was shocked by a few elements of the book. First, one of the heavies is Arno Stark - the Iron Man of, ahem, 2020! That's right, this 1984 look into the future shows a lot of technological ideas that we can, now four years beyond the storytellers' mark, confirm never came to pass.

• Flying cars? Nope

• Cyborgs and tech-gangs? Not unless you count those Grinders who get magnets implanted in their skin

• Mega corporations that control the world... oh, well, I guess that one is pretty accurate.

A second shocker was Jocasta, the robot lady person I would know briefly from an Avengers annual published a few years after this book. This made me curious to look up just how much Machine Man has to do with the Marvel we've come to know in the years since this series. From what I found, the continuity here is designated as Earth-8410, and is not to be confused with Earth-616 Jocasta, who Ultron built as his, er, bride?

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

Finom - Fantasize Your Ghost

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine

The Trapezoid - Reverb Nation Playlist

Black Rainbows - Superskull

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Algiers - Shook

Turnstile - GLOW ON

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Nine of Wands

• XVIII: The Moon

• IX: The Hermit

Nine of Wands relates to The Moon in Thoth, as the Sun and Moon factor into the Croweley/Harris visualization for the card as motivating elements of the "Strength" of the card. One Wand (arrows in Thoth) supported by eight; driving force. The Hermit here suggests I need to take a solitary day and put all my effort into something that's been occluded to me thus far. I happen to know exactly what that is.

The Bronx - Put That in Your Peace Pipe & Smoke It!!!

I haven't seen The Bronx live in a lot longer than I thought. Way back in 2004, Mr. Brown, my cousin Charles and I discovered these guys at Chicago's Fireside Bowl when they opened for Dillinger Escape Plan on their Miss Machine tour, the first with Greg Puciato stepping in on vocals after original singer Dimitri Minakakis left the band. This was a fantastic show for many reasons - it was one of (if not THE) final time I attended a show at the Fireside (RIP); The Bronx were a f&*king revelation live that made me an instant die-hard fan, and Mr. Puciato began a reign of beautiful terror that proved he was up to the task of fronting the otherworldly machine that is D.E.P.

Anyway, shortly before flying out to L.A. a few weeks ago (I'm still here!), my good friends M-n-K surprised me by grabbing tickets to Alex's Bar's 24th Anniversary show with The Bronx, Negative Blast and R0BBER. Much like Tarantino's New Beverly Theatre, I lived in L.A. for 16 years and never made it to Alex's Bar, despite countless invites. So once again, I remedy that on this trip (I went to the New Bev last weekend). 

Interestingly enough, this appears to be a year of full circles. Last month my good friend Dave and I locked down a trip to Brooklyn in June to see Dillinger play Calculating Infinity for it's 25th anniversary. The singer for the show is Dimitri, and I couldn't be more psyched. I haven't been to NYC since 2014 (I think) and Dimitri was the frontman of the band when I was introduced to them opening for Mr. Bungle in 1999 at Chicago's Metro.

Full Circle indeed.

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Moment:

Jotting down some ideas last night at Santa Monica Brew Works, sipping on their gorgeous Nitro Irish Stout.

A good night. Met up with my A Most Horrible Library cohost, Chris, and caught up. We planned some new episodes, and I just generally unwound from a crazy work week.

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Watch:

I've never really been a Troma fan, so it follows that I've never really cared about The Toxic Avenger. Macon Blair, however, gets all my love, so when I saw he was writing/directing this reboot, I knew I'd been giving it a chance. 

Since first seeing Blair in Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin, I've been a fan of both men. Blair's 2017 directorial debut, I Do Not Feel At Home In This World Anymore, is a high point in Netflix's original feature films and has a cast that just blows me away. Then again, anyone who puts David Yow in their film is aces in my book, and a quick perusal of this new iteration of Toxie's IMDB page shows Mr. Yow is once again on hand. Hell yeah!

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Playlist:

Damone - From The Attic

Damone - Out Here All Night

Mastodon - Leviathan

The Bronx - (I)

The Bronx - VI

Turnstile - GLOW ON

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

Scratch Acid - The Greatest Gift

The Bronx - (II)

The National - Conversation 16 (Single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• IX: The Hermit

• VIII: Strength

• Six of Pentacles

Rest and recharge, confirmation I'm spending my one day off this week in the correct capacity. 

Man, I LOVE every damn card in this deck. 

Chris Brokaw & Thalia Zedek - The Night Has No Eyes (Live)

 

I set out to post the Karl Hendricks cover that closes out Chris Brokaw's 2019 album Puritan - an album my good friend Seth literally just introduced me to on Friday, and that I was in love with an hour after hearing the opening track. This live version, although filmed a bit rough, blows me away. All the power of that album version, right there in a f*&king living room. Damn. 

As I went to type in the tags on this post, I noticed I'd posted about Brokaw before, back in 2014. Did not remember he was a contributing member of Wrekmeister Harmonies, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. Onward to a new musical rabbit hole!!!

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Watch:

When K and I recently rejoined Netflix, one of the oversights we corrected was rewatching and finishing Kevin Smith's Masters of the Universe: Revelations. Turns out we did so just in time, as there's a new chapter quickly approaching.

We both really dug Revelations and seeing as Hordak is coming to town in this new one, I'm fairly certain we'll dig this one as well. Hordak is my guy!!!

Now, Mr. Smith, please tell me we have a Slime Pit sequence in this one somewhere. 

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Playlist:

T. Rex - The Slider

P.J. Harvey - Rid of Me

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Fugazi - End Hits

Killing Joke - Eponymous

The Cramps - Psychedelic Jungle

The Ghastly Ones - A Haunting We Will Go

Perturbator - Bloodlust (single)

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Perturbator - Terror 404

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New Dandy Warhols!!!

New Dandy Warhols, from the forthcoming album Rockmaker, out March 15th. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

Jesus. My box is going to be full when I return to Clarksville and pick up my books from Rick's Comic City. Here's what is being added to it this week:

Ash! Evil Ash! 1990s and the far-future. This one has it all, true believers!

Still one of my favorite books to read each month. 

The Deviant is such a gnarly book. Really happy this is going longer than what I originally thought was a three-issue series. 

What's the Furthest Place From Here goes on hiatus after the next issue, so I'm a bit bummed. That said, I can't wait to see how the current arc ends and where that puts us in Boss and Rosenberg's world.

The High Evolutionary returns! I'm not sure how exactly this ties in with the "Fall of the House of X;" doesn't matter because, again, the High Evolutionary.

Cobra Commander. 'Nuff said. I find it interesting that the main characters of this short, lead-in series are apparently Destro, Zarana, CC himself and Mercer. Man, Kirkman's Energon Universe is really going out of its way to do something different with this long-running property. 

Man, could we get a High Evolutionary/Cobra Commander crossover at some point in the future? Probably not, but it's nice to dream.

Additionally for today, the final issue of Enfield Gang Massacre will be in my Chicago Pull at Amazing Fantasy, and I'll probably grab these other two from the Comic Bug while I'm in the South Bay next weekend:

I had incorrectly assumed issue five of Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips' The Enfield Gang Massacre was the final chapter. Nice to see I was wrong and we get one more. Can't wait to get this from Amazing Fantasy and finally read the series start to finish.

I'm still not putting ARAH on my pull list, but for the time being, I'm enjoying seeing where this series and these characters have been since I last checked in on them circa 1991.

I thought I'd give this new Hellblazer series a chance. 

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Watch:

 

In. Totally in.

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Playlist:

T. Rex - The Slider

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Fugazi - 13 Songs

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Danzig With Myself - Rockmaker (pre-release singles)

Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Three of Swords 

• Four of Swords 

• Four of Pentacles

I continue to be fascinated by the frequency with which I draw Swords in this deck. I feel like these, coupled with the Four of Pentacles may point to my not using my intellect in regards to Earthly matters. Money? Possibly. 

New Music From Idles!!!

 

From the forthcoming record Tangk, out February 10th on Partisan Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

True Detective Night Country episode one aired this past Sunday. I have high hopes for this season; Writer/Director Issa López is helming all six episodes, and I have the utmost faith in her. Tigers Are Not Afraid definitely employs the kind of dark, magical realism that could really help TD hit the high notes Season One and Season Three do. 

That said, I do not have a lot of faith in what I can only imagine is the HBO/True Detective Editorial Bullpen, so to speak. Season Three really floored me until the resolution, which absolutely robs that season's story of its magic. I'm hoping they don't do the same thing with this new season; however, after watching the first episode, I'm also hoping they don't overdo the extra-sensory stuff. We'll see. My Horror Vision cohost, Missi, and I are doing a weekly recap; I'll update this later today when it's posted. 

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Playlist:

David Bowie - Low

Various - Lost Highway OST

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

The Damned - Evil Spirits

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Arab Strap - The Week Never Starts Around Here (Disk 2)

Arab Strap - The Red Thread

Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

David Bowie - Buddha of Suburbia

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Cups

• Six of Cups

• I: The Magician

Emotional Earthly concerns reach a culmination through Will. That's a pretty crappy, surface-level reading, but it's all I have time for this morning. Working on-site is kicking my arse!!!

David Bowie - Subterraneans

 

I love the way Bowie plays sax on this track. It literally soothes my soul, while also conjuring a mood similar to the one Cowboy Bebop does. 

Thus completeth David Bowie week, an annual event I like to do here to commemorate the life, work and passing of the Alien. He changed our world, I wish I could say we'd learned how to do that from him, but no, I don't think we did.

 

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Watch:

I first saw Michael Mann's Heat opening weekend in 1995. I was nineteen and really just getting into film. I thought I knew a lot, and maybe I did for someone my age. I certainly watched and thought and wrote about them enough. This was, of course before the mass proliferation of the internet, so I'm not sure what I read about Heat before seeing it, but I was excited. I'd learned to identify and love Michael Mann's style via Miami Vice, Manhunter, Crime Story and Thief. All the hype that preceded Heat's release focused on Pacino and Deniro being together in a film for the first time since The Godfather flicks. I saw it, and was pretty damn disappointed. I'd never watched the film again until last night, when several of us headed out to Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. 

This outing possessed a two-fold purpose: 1) I'd lived in L.A. for 16 years before moving and never made it to the New Bev. 2) Because of Professor John Trafton and Miles Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast, I found myself wanting to give Heat another chance. I'm happy to report that, while I still very much wish Pacino had dialed it back on a lot of his line delivery, I now agree that Heat is a Neo Noir Masterpiece. 

 

There were two big narrative gaps I credited as my major problem with the film: Waingro's "Serial killer" subplot, which I previously felt went nowhere, and the fate of Pacino's Stepdaughter, played by Natalie Portman. In the latter case, it always irritated me that, as I had previously perceived it, the film did not resolve her fate. Seeing this last night, I now think it is entirely possible that I ran to the bathroom during the scene where the surgeon tells Pacino and his estranged wife Justine (played by Diane Venora) that their daughter is alive and will pull through. I also think I may have just missed it because that scene is really the epitaph to the couple's relationship, and there's a lot of nuance to the scene and performances that I just don't think I would have been experienced enough in life and love to fully grasp at the time. I'd always viewed Portman's suicide attempt as a needless dramatic plot point stuffed in at the eleventh hour for no reason other than to tighten the screws on Al's character. It actually provides an exhale on the subplot of his marriage.

The Waingro issue is a different animal altogether, and last night's viewing led me to the conclusion that Heat is edited unlike any film I had ever seen previously. The film hits the ground RUNNING, and is such a rapid-fire accumulation of edits and characters, that Mann has to establish characters quickly. He does so deftonly, and while I do feel that the serial prostitute killer angle on his character should have had at least one nod past the original - because it's revealed early on that the police are aware they have an active serial killer - but ultimately is serves to establish A LOT about Waingro's character in very little time.

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

Marilyn Manson - God's Gonna Cut You Down (single)

Massive Attack - Protection

PJ Harvey - Rid of Me

Marilyn Manson - AntiChrist Superstar

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

Robbie Dupree - Steal Away (single)

Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes (single)

The Bee Gees - Love You Inside Out (single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Four of Pentacles

• XIV: Temperance

• King of Swords

Logging this here and will try to circle back around for an interpretation at some point later tonight or tomorrow. L.A. is keeping me on my toes.

David Bowie - The Secret Life of Arabia (Remaster)

I guess I'm sticking with the Berlin Trilogy until the end.

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