New Music from The Jesus Lizard!!!

 

Wednesday was an incredible day for new album announcements. I'd been expecting David Lynch to drop something because of a video he posted last week, but The Jesus Lizard's Rack from Ipecac was 100% surprise. This is the band's first album since 1998's Blue, and while there is a lot I do like about their two Capitol Records, I can already tell by this first single "Hide & Seek," that I like Paul Allen's production on this one way better (RIP Steve Albini, who produced their iconic albums for Touch & Go back in the 90s). 

Also, Mac is back! That's right, original drummer Mac McNeilly is once again behind the skins. The stars have aligned!

Pre-order from Ipecac Recordings HERE.

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Watch:

Last night, K and I went to see Ishana Shyamalan's The Watchers. 

Despite seeing this or a slightly different trailer before pretty much every movie I've attended in the theatre for the last month or two, I went in with a fairly open mind. All I'll say is, if you're an M. Knight fan, you'll probably dig this. It was very well made and had excellent performances, but I did not care for the script, characters or the film overall. I kind of felt a weird parallel to when I saw The Village, back on opening night in 2004. With it in a half-arsed kind of way until the last act, when I kind of just want to get up and walk out.

* My good friend Missi laughs at my growing frustration at pre-show "entertainment." She cooly arrives at just the right time every time she goes to the theatre (about as often as us), but somehow, I just can't time that right. 

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Playlist:

The Jesus Lizard - Show

Shellac - To All Trains

Big Black - Lungs

Various - The Lounge Ax Defense and Relocation Compact Disc

Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love

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Card:

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

• Knight of Swords

• Five of Wands

• Queen of Wands

Perhaps cryptically, I have "Motivation as Will" written in the Grimoire for Knight of Swords. This is the Firey aspect of Air, or the Will as applied to Intellect. Five of Wands is Conflict in Earthly matters, and Queen of Wands, or the Emotional aspect of Will.

All any of this tells me at the moment - when it's 12:47 AM and I'm tired as hell -  are we're all a big o' mess O' trouble. Contradictions and good intentions, but if you recognize that and we start there, we can move on and perhaps conquer and shape some of what makes us indecisive and try and turn conflict into stability.

 

We're getting a new album from David Lynch and Chrysta Bell! They dropped the first song yesterday, as Lynch cryptically promised on his social media last week. You can pre-order Cellophane Memories from the always wonderful Sacred Bones if you go to their site HERE or David Lynch's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Here's one I'm dying to watch but have thus far successfully fought the urge to do so, simply because I'm certain I'll see it play ahead of movies in the theatre.

I can't wait to see this movie, and I have nothing but the utmost faith in Fede Alvarez. I'm just more than a little concerned that what happened to Evil Dead Rise after seeing the trailer so many times could happen to this. Chances are, that's not going to happen, because this will be a better movie, and I've already been told by several people that this trailer doesn't actually give away much. But I think of that "Mommy's with the maggots now" scene and wonder if it just might have been a truly terrifying scene if I hadn't already been inoculated of it through repetition. I consider it a fucking miracle that we have Alvarez on a franchise I love and want the best for - one that needs more than a little help, let's face it. So... I'll continue to wait. But it's here now, just in case I change my mind (like I eventually will).

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Playlist:

David Lynch and Chrystabell - Sublime Eternal Love (pre-release single)

The Jesus Lizard - Hide & Seek (pre-release single)

The Jesus Lizard - Show

Anthrax - Persistence of Time

Anthrax - Among the Living

The Jesus Lizard - Shot

Phil Collins - Face Value

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New Music From The Chameleons!

I think I'd heard titterings about this at some point, but when it popped up in my feed this evening, I was kind of blown the f*ck away. From the 3-Song EP out on Metropolis Records now! Order HERE. Apparently a full album is due this fall, and hearing this now, I'm on board. This 100% retains that Chameleons emotional blow, without sounding forced or tired. Love it. 

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NCBD:

Here's this week's Pull, and I'm pretty excited for these:

The untold tale of that time the U.S. Army sent Frank Castle behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War to kill the captured Nick Fury. Written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Jacen Burrows. Can't think of something I want to read more at this moment.

It took a little longer than probably any of us reading it expected, but The Last Ronin II issue 2 finally arrives today. Glad to still have a dose of TMNT for a while, especially in this Miller-esque Dystopian Future-verse.

If Scartlett's mini-series is even half as good as either Duke or Cobra Commander, we're in for a treat. Curious to see how the Energon Universe handles the Arashikage. 

Carter F**king Burke! Who would have thought I'd enjoy seeing him breathe after his part in James Cameron's Aliens? Really digging this series.

Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out. No, seriously, I will approach this final issue with a modicum of reverence because, despite months now of griping here at the end, I'll miss reading the X books these last couple of years. Luckily, I never went back and filled in the gap between House and Powers and Inferno, so there's still a year or two of actual Hickman-penned issues for me to jump into.

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Watch:

While I found Goodnight Mommy to be pointlessly mean-spirited and just plain awful, I'm a huge fan of Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz's The Lodge. Likewise, after watching this trailer for their new film The Devil's Bath, I'm quite looking forward to it.

While this trailer feels arduously long, I honestly applaud the fact that they don't really tell you all that much. Or at least that's how it feels. Also, there are a handful of images in here near the end that will stay with me for some time.

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Playlist:

Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn 2017

Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground

Tennis System - Technicolour Blind

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

Frank Black and the Catholics - Snake Oil

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Revocation - Teratogenesis (deluxe)

Revocation - Eponymous

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Card:

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

• Eight of Pentacles - More transformation of Earthly assets

• XIX: The Sun - From the Grimoire, "Taking the Pill will open your eyes."

• Page of Swords - The Earthly aspect of Air. "apply your intellect to something useful!"

A Drink Before the War

From 1987's The Lion and the Cobra. Outstanding song from an outstanding album. Makes 1987 feel so close I can almost touch it.

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Watch:

It's been a while since I'd enjoyed John Carpenter's In the Mouth Of Madness. I'm guesting on John Trafton and Mile Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast next week for the second part of their 1994 retrospective (part 1 is HERE), and Madness was one of the four films we're covering. 

Maybe it's because I just rewatched Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, too, but I'd never realized the influence that both the NOES and Hellraiser series had on this flick until now. I'm not sure if that influence comes more from writer Michael De Luca (who also wrote Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) or JC himself, but it's definitely there. Also, and I know everyone who loves this movie knows this, but the brilliance of combining Stephen King's popularity with H.P. Lovecraft's ethos in Sutter Cane is one of the great triumphs of homage to either author, in a world where 75% of Horror is homage to one or the other (or both). I'd add that making Jürgen Porchnow look like Neil Gaiman - who would have been rounding the corner on finishing the original Sandman series for DC's Vertigo at the time, adds just the right amount of prescience about Gaiman's inevitable place in the pantheon King and Lovecraft reside over.

 

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Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

The Reverend Horton Heat - Whole New Life

The Raveonettes - Sing

Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

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Card:

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

• Six of Cups - Emotional fulfillment.

• IX: The Hermit - I need a period to regroup. Badly.

• Three of Pentacles - Growth in Earthly terms. Not sure if this is responsibility maturation or windfall. Windfall would be nice.

Watain - Reaping Death Live in Stolkholm, 2022

It only recently came to my attention over the weekend that Watain released a killer Live album last year, Die in Fire: Live in Hell Stockholm 2022. Here's Reaping Death, one of the stand-out tracks on a really great live album. Reminds me a bit of Slayer's Decade of Aggression.

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Watch:

Recently, I subscribed to a streaming channel on Prime called ScreenPix. This is a $2.99, bottom-of-the-barrel kind of streamer, however, there were a handful of flix that drew me in, and at $2.99, well, no real damage. Here's what I've watched on there so far:

 

This was the flick that brought me in. Missi and I recently interviewed Horror Author Extraordinaire Ivy Tholen on The Horror Vision, and as part of that episode, we asked her to pick one movie to talk about. Ivy picked Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers.

Next, I can remember I, Madman on the video shelf going way back (I often confuse it with Dr. Giggles - another flick I still need to see - for some reason. What I didn't know about I, Madman is it was directed by Tibor Takács, Director of The Gate. 

 

Finally, last night, I fired up Klaus Kinski as a peepin' Tom Nazi holdover in David Schmoeller's 1986 what-the-fuck-a-thon, Crawlspace.

Not nearly as 'great' as I wanted it to be, Crawlspace is still very much worth a watch just for Kinski.

 

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Read:

I am absolutely blazing through Stephen Graham Jones' The Angel of Indian Lake. ~250 pages in, this book is a clusterfuck Horror movie in prose; there's SO much going on, an enormous body count, and we still don't really know who or what is behind it all.

I've seen some blurbs with people calling this ' a consuming mess,' but I don't think it's that at all. There's a difference between someone who can juggle a lot of different objects at once and make it look easy and someone who can just barely keep them all in the air. This feels effortless in its complexity. I'm taking notes, believe you me.

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Playlist:

Shellac - To All Trains

The Raveonettes - Sing

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave

Sleep - Dopesmoker

Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky

Frank Sinatra - Songs for Young Lovers

Blut Aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age

Blut Aus Nord - The Mythical Beast of Rebellion

The Used - Eponymous

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Watain - Die in Fire: Live in Hell (Stockholm 2022)

Burzum - Aske

Burzum - Filosofem

Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

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Card:

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

• Eight of Swords 

• Ten of Wands

• XI - Justice

Transformation, Endings and Just deserts. I'm thinking this is a nod toward Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, which I've just come back around on to finish. 

New Music from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds!

A second single from the forthcoming album Wild God, out August 30th. Pre-order HERE. 

This track is fantastic, but there's still something about every Bad Seeds record since Push the Sky Away that bothers me. I love the aforementioned Sky Away, which definitely ushered in an entirely new era for the band, but I kind of feel like they've been stuck in that mode ever since, with diminishing returns. Diminishing returns not because the music isn't great but because I guess I'm used to the boys changing their sound up every few records. I feel like, if one new record could just be something new, then these last few would really fall into place for me. Either way, one of the greatest artists and bands of all time, in my opinion. 

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Watch:

K and I did a double feature of Until the Light Takes Us and Lords of Chaos over the last two nights; I've seen both films several times, but they never fail to pack a punch.

It was especially interesting watching Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos again now, as we very recently watched his Netflix series Clark with Bill Skarsgård; some definite similarities.

Not sure if that really comes through in the trailer; however, Åkerlund always gets a recommendation from me, so if you have Netflix, Clark is definitely worth checking out. Also based on a real-life, larger-than-life personality and the "truth and lies" approach.

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Read:

With all the running around I've been doing, it took me a way longer time to finish re-reading Stephen Graham Jones' Don't Fear the Reaper, but I did yesterday morning. Glorious. Next up - and I am excited - book three of the Indian Lake Trilogy:

Fifty pages in and this one has already made me tear up more than once. Jade Daniels is such an amazing, engrossing character, made so real by the mania for the genre a lot of us share. Can't recommend these books enough. 

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Playlist:

The Raveonettes - Sing

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Fantômas - Delirium Cordia

The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love

Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God (pre-release singles)

Rodney Crowell - Triage

Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky

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Card:

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

• Five of Pentacles (Disks)

• Eight of Swords

• Four of Wands

Conflict, followed by transformation (possibly through just desserts), and finally stability. Shit man, that's life in a nutshell. 

How do I apply this to anything in my life right now? Like, today? Weeeelllll... I have a meeting later today with a transportation vendor that has been eating a lot of mental and emotional real estate. Feels like it might be conflict-heavy. I miss the old days, when you could just punch someone in the face. Maybe out of this, we'll achieve the stability we need to make my job a metric shit-ton easier.

Waiting for the End of Time

Nothing will ever replace Barry Adamson's 1998's As Above, So Below as my favorite Barry Adamson album, but this? This might be my favorite song he's ever recorded. 

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NCBD:

Wednesday is the best day of the five-day week because it's New Comic Book Day. Although my pull lists are growing shorter, I still love this day to the core of my being. Here's what I'm picking up today:

The final issue of the third mini-series entry in David Dastmalchian's Count Crowley series. I still haven't read any of these, but I'm familiar enough with the concept to think I'll probably tear into this one from the first issue now that it's finished. Gotta pick up those other two trades...

One more after this, and both are Kieron Gillen, so this should be a proper slog. Let's see what ridiculous bullsh*t they come up with to end the Nathanial Essex Dominion storyline.

It occurs to me - if Marvel is taking the X-Books back to the pre-Krakoa paradigm of individual superhero teams, maybe they can course-correct one change that Hickman ushered in and Gillen really played up that I hate: Mr. Sinister as a dandy fop. I much prefer the version in the 80s, an evil, brooding masochist, to the one of the Krakoa era. In fact, I'd have to say changing Sinister's disposition is the only thing about Hickman's run I don't like, and it's really reached a crescendo of annoyance with all the Sinister Clones running around, complete with different card suites on their foreheads. I mean, I guess it really doesn't matter if they change him back, as I'll be gone. 

I really can't say enough good things about The Six Fingers and its sister book, The One Hand. I think both series conclude next month, so I'd definitely recommend picking up the trades if you're into the idea of a good, quasi-cyber punk, Blade Runner-ish Neo-Noir story. 

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Watch:

Now, please.

Is it just me, or has the release date for the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things been pushed back like, four or five times now? I need a fixed point on the calendar so I know when to start rewatching the series from the beginning. 

Few mainstream things in 2024 are worthy of the hype. Stranger Things is, in my opinion. 

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Playlist:

LCD Soundsystem - New Body Rhumba (single)

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize (single)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps (single)

Mr. Bungle - Violenza Domestica ("single")

LCD Soundsystem - Eponymous

Big Black - Songs About Fucking

Naked Raygun - Over the Overlords

Mad Love - White With Foam

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Mr. Bungle - California

The Raveonettes - Sing

Phil Collins - Face Value

Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound

High on Fire - Surrounded By Thieves

The Flesh Easters - I Used to Be Pretty

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Card:

Back to my trusty, original Thoth deck for today's Pull. 

• Ace of Disks

• 10 of Swords: Ruin

• 9 of Disks: Gain

A possible monetary breakthrough, but apparently one of a tempestuous nature, as the line between loss and gain appears to be paper thin. Curious if this has to do with some stock positions I've been watching act erratically over the last three weeks.