New Music from Chat Pile

 

Chat Pile blows me away. I won't pretend to have clocked a lot of hours on their stuff, but the handful of rotations I've given their first full-length, God's Country, affected me deeply. I've heard comparisons to King Missle, and there's an element of that in lead vocalist Raygun Busch's approach, for sure. Except, as much as I like some King Missle, their music is largely about being clever; there's no soul-searing vitriol mixed in like there is here. Also, the music sounds like The Jesus Lizard and Thrall in a blender with a can of dirt-streaked brown paint. That bass sound! 

The new album Cool World is up for pre-order now HERE.
 

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Watch:

Stumbling across the trailer for the Butcher Brothers Consumed this morning, I could have sworn I'd posted about this film at some point in the past. I couldn't find anything, though, so here we go:

This one doesn't exactly look like my cuppa. However, if there's a Wendigo involved, I feel like I have to investigate. I'm not familiar with the Butchers' work, but I believe The Hamiltons is Masters of Horror season one, which I bought on a digital sale a few years back, so I'll have to check that out soon. Meantime, I've added Consumed to the list.

(I have to admit, the title drew my eye because I thought for a second we were finally getting that adaptation of David Cronenberg's BRILLIANT novel of the same name. No dice.)

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Read:

After beginning last Spring (I think), I finally jumped in and finished my re-read of IDW's Cobra series from the 2010s. I'd read the series monthly, but not since, and I wasn't quite prepared for the insane level of head-fuckery this book takes on, especially once it gets to the Las Vegas chapter. 

The idea of a small unit housing Tomax Paoli as a prisoner in his own Casino, exploring intel he's giving them they know is tainted but have to act on anyway, is a great start, but by the time the series restarts the final time as The Cobra Files, the level of deep psychological control Paoli - whose twin brother Xamot was killed very early on in the series - exerts through his malicious mental influence on several team members is downright frightening.

This book really pulls no punches, and once again, I am utterly floored by what a fresh, dark take on the property IDW allowed Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso to take with this book. I never got into the other IDW Joe titles and still don't really have any interest in doing so. This, however, is one for the ages.

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Playlist:

Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge

Sam Hain - Unholy Passion

Sam Hain - Final Descent

M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

Tomahawk - Oddfellows

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Idles - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

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Card:

Back to my trusty old Thoth deck for a while. I've been missing it:

• XX: The Aeon

• XI: Lust

• 10 of Wands: Oppression

"Taking the pill will open your eyes." The pull of unconnected processes. Oppression (read at face value). This points to a theory I'm developing for a story that is quite important in my understanding of how to navigate this world of corporate dominance. 

Japandroids - Chicago

 

I'm way late in posting this first single off Japandroids forthcoming and final album Fate & Alcohol, out October 18th on Anti. Pre-order HERE.

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I've been meaning to post about this one for a while. Eight Eyes is the feature film directorial debut from Austin Jennings, Producer/Director of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs and Diana Prince. 

This looks Grimy A.F.! Seriously, I'm kind of wondering if it will end up crossing some of my lines, but we'll see. This is the first original co-production from Vinegar Syndrome Pictures, the newly-launched production arm of one of the boutique home video label, along with Shudder and Not the Funeral Home. 

You can order the Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome HERE, and you can read more about the film on the official website HERE. 

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Read:

Somehow, I missed the fact that the new Brubaker/Phillips HC Graphic Novel hit the stands on Wednesday. I was actually only a few hours back from Rick's Comic City with my weekly pull when my good friend Chris Saunders messaged to see if I'd snagged it. One quick message to Rick's in the morning and I had Houses of the Unholy waiting for me in my box. 

Another fantastic novel from this team who seem pretty much unstoppable at this point. I wanted more from the ending, but then, I'm also always okay with ambiguity, so aside from that minor issue that can easily be forgiven, this one rocked. Essentially a tale about the aftermath of America's great Satanic Panic in the 80s, this goes to some interesting places, and in typical Brubaker fashion, the plot takes turns you'd never see coming. 

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Playlist:

Primus - Antipop

Primus - Green Naugahyde

The Cops - Free Electricity

Thievery Corporation - The Outernational Sound

Z-Rock Hawaii - Eponymous

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Behind the Music

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

PJ Harvey - Stories from the City Stories from the Sea

Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl

Nico Vega - Lead to Light

Danzig - Black Aria

Danzig - Black Aria II

Ian Lynch - All You Need is Death OST

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Card:

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

• Four of Cups

• V: The Hierophant

• XIV: Temperance

The luxury of establishing a routine that works specifically in my own private microcosm has to spread out and establish itself after a new idea is added. Whatever this is, I'm assuming it's writing, Process, and that my own will slip a bit before recovering. Once back online, however, I should be stronger. 

Simon Waskow - Soft Array

From Simon Waskow's incredible score for Tilman Singer's Luz. I love this film, and a lot of that love comes from the score (not to diminish the film in any way; I feel about this the way I do M83's score for Knife + Heart - they are intertwined perfectly).  

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Watch:

K and I hit the local theatre's 7:20 PM screening of Fede Alvarez's Alien: Romulus last night.

This is everything you want from an Alien film. There's just the right amount of fan service, I think, and that's refreshing after Deadpool Loves Wolverine,  which I enjoyed, but which was 90% fan service. But of course, Fede Alvarez was going to know how to make an incredible Alien film - he already proved his ability to pick up an iconic franchise with 2013's Evil Dead.

I don't want to say too much, but I will say the trailers gave nothing away on this one, and that makes me super happy. That said, I'm still only posting that first teaser. The less you see, the better. The tone and story of Romulus advance the world of "The Company" in a way that I very much appreciated, and a lot of the opening chapter's set designs remind me of that wonderful Metal Hulant Sci-Fi from the 70s/80s.

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Having finished Alan Moore's Swamp Thing last weekend, I began Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Nearing the end of the first collected volume, Preludes and Nocturnes, I'm reminded how much I absolutely love this book. The John Dee chapters are my favorites, and "24 Hours" stands as a watershed moment in my comic book reading life. 

I can still vividly remember the way this book made me feel the first time I read it, and that's rare (although not rare for 80s/90s Vertigo comics). Storywise, Dream doesn't even enter the picture until the last page or so, and that time spent away, watching a demented man amuse himself with the lives of others, as careless as if he were throwing dice, it just sunk in and took root. There is real Horror here, and it's steeped in a glorious 80s Post Punk flavor that just kicked open all kinds of new doors for me at the time I read it in High School, circa... 92 or 93, I think.

Onward to my favorite collected edition - The Doll's House, which will be the first volume that draws from Moore's Swamp Thing by incorporating a transmogrified Matthew Cable as Matthew the Raven and the references to Moore's The Boogeyman Killer. I'm hoping as I read these I might find some other references I'm not familiar with. 

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Playlist:

Primus - Antipop

QOTSA - Era Vulgaris B-Sides/Lullabies to Paralyze Vinyl Exclusives

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Jon Cleary - Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen

Danzig - Danzig 4

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

Primus - Green Gnaugahyde

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up for four more days. Check it out HERE.

• Ace of Swords

• Two of Pentacles

• Queen of Pentacles

A breakthrough of intellect leads to collaboration and a nurturing future endeavor. Interesting... at least with Vol. 4 published, I can stop reading all of these are pertaining to finishing that book.

New Music from A Place to Bury Strangers!

 

From the forthcoming album Synthesizer, out October 4th on Dedstrange. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

Throwing a couple of last-minute titles on the list this week. Here we go:

How can I pass up a facsimile edition of the first appearance of Swamp Thing in The House of Secrets #93 when I just finished reading all six volumes of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing? The short answer is, I can't.

This new Werewolf By Night series is apparently the first "Red Band" Marvel book, so I have to check it out. Okay Marvel, Thrill me.

More Shockwave. More! More! That's still not enough Shockwave! MORE!!!

This series is seriously unnerving me. Reminds me a lot of Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy, which I read earlier this year. Call it the junction point where Cosmic Horror meets Body Horror. Science Horror? Any way you call it, I'm digging Into the Unbeing.

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Playlist:

Final Light - Eponypous

Shellac - To All Trains

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Assembly Line People Program - Eponymous EP

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That

Dead Milkmen - Quaker City Quiet Pills

T. Rex - The Slider

Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over

Barry Adamson - Cut to Black

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up for five more days. Check it out HERE.

• XIV: Temperance (aka ART)

• Knight of Wands

• Four of Cups

 Elements previously thought divisive begin to fall into a cooperative allure, creating stability previously overlooked or unfounded.

Shawn C. Baker - VOL. 4 Available Now!!!

 Despite all my bitching about amazon of late - there's a lot to bitch about - I'm acting as a total hypocrite and released my new short story collection Vol. 4 as a Kind Exclusive. This was meant to be a free collection. However, I realized too late that Amazon requires a minimum purchase price of $0.99. So there it is and here's a link. Cover concept by me, actual artistic execution by Jonathan Grimm Art - whose Kickstarter for the Art of the Bound Tarot book is still running. 

Popcorn Fright Film Fest

 

I rewatched Richard Bates Jr.'s Excision (a perfect film) this past Saturday night, and it put me back on the White Lung. I don't think I'd ever seen this video, taken from 2016's Paradise (a perfect album), directed by Bates and starring Excision's Pauline, AnnaLynne McCord.

I miss this band.

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I did a couple of Virtual Screenings at Ft. Lauderdale's Popcorn Frights Film Fest this past Friday. First up, Luke Bursaća's Videoteka.

I really liked a lot about this film, but found it's pacing to be off. I think the script either wasn't quite right, or there was something lost in the translation between Serbian culture and my own. Still, let me lay out the accolades because there are many: The lighting is exquisite! The Acting is all top-notch, the sound design and score are fantastic, and the locations and set/production design really transport you to the world of the film. I think the trouble lay in balancing a wrap-around with three fairly lengthy films within the film. That's definitely not an easy format to work with, and I'd say Mr. Bursaća did a pretty damn good job. Can't wait to see what he does next.

Next up, Michael Varrati's There's a Zombie Outside. No trailer up yet for this one that I could find, so here's the poster:

A very meta take on doing a zombie film about a guy who makes a zombie film and then fears that will be his high point. In that way, this is more a contemplation on the interior pressures of an artist than a straight horror film, but it was fun and had some great ideas, even if not everything worked all the time. Overall, a definite recommend, especially if you dig films like 2018's You Might Be the Killer; I feel like that would make a perfect double feature with this film.

Popcorn Fright Film Fest runs through August 18th. I don't think I'll have a chance to see any more virtual films, but if you're looking for some new Horror/Genre, check the fest out HERE.

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Read:

I tore through the final three volumes of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing saga over the weekend, and I can say that due to some neglect years before, I don't think I'd ever actually read the final three issues of the run. As the trajectory Moore and his artists create in the earlier volumes, their tenure on Swamp Thing more than lives up to the expectations they set at the outset redefining the character from Once-Man-Now-Monster to something God-like and, ultimately, Cosmic. The final two volumes especially really stretch Moore's concepts as far as they can go - like allll the way across the DCU's cosmic breadth. I wasn't huge on the Brujeria Cosmic World Ending Crisis storyline, but then me and world-ending cataclysms in comics reached saturation at least a decade ago. That said, it's still cool to see the template for what DC has been trying to refine into their "Dark Justice League" since the New 52 here in its inception and see it done flawlessly, no less.

Of particular note in these volumes is issue 60, Loving the Alien. Named after Bowie song, this is unlike any other mainstream American comic at this time (that I know of, at least).

A tale of techno-organic lust, the words flow more like William Burroughs than anything Moore did in Swamp book's done previously and the art... to say John TotLeben redefines what a DC comic can look like here is an understatement. This was such an interesting period in comics. 

Around the same time, Barry Windsor Smith did Uncanny X-Men #205, and there's a throughline here. This is where that Métal Hurlant influence really creeps into the establishment in the states, and it's glorious.

Now to move seamlessly into Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which in many ways picks up and continues some of the smaller threads of Moore's Swamp Thing. I'll admit, I'd also like to look into what followed this groundbreaking run.

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Playlist:

QOTSA - Villains

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Anthrax - Sound of White Noise

Amigo the Devil - Born Against

Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World

Chris Isaak - Speak of the Devil

Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel

Danzig - Danzig 4

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

Roy Orbison - Greatest Hits 

Calexico - Even Sure Things Fall Through 

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Final Light - Eponymous

Willie Nelson - Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin

Simon Waskow - Luz OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• XVIII: The Moon

• Knight of Swords

• Eight of Wands

Something obscured from sight (or neglected) will provide motivation for transformation. 

Can it get any more vague than that? Probably not, but my head's only half in this at the moment, so I'll be chewing on that all day.

Azim Ali - Live at Paste Studio NYC live from The Manhattan Center

 

Full confession - I am not familiar with Azam Ali's music at all. My good friend Dennis sent me this video a few weeks back and it just got lost in the shuffle of the day-to-day. I realized my negligence this morning and fired "Tender Violet" up and was pretty much completely blown away.

Link to the full youtube video in the playlist below. 
 

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Last night K and I went to see Tilman Singer's new film, Cuckoo.

The night before, I finally watched Singer's first film, 2018's Luz. Having now seen both in tight succession, I can say I will follow this man wherever he goes from here out.

There's definitely something about Singer's work that gives me a hint of Nicolas Winding Refn, but it's just a hint, a sort of Hauntology flavor that doesn't overpower everything else like the current crop of films I would describe using the same reference does. In Singer's work, there's just as much classic Horror and, after seeing Cuckoo I have to say it, 80s action mixed in. What that more subtle predilection for hazy, contemplative tempos and outdated locations/set design does for the film is anchor the story and characters in a recognizable, relatable world, even as the plot and FX push the film into some super bizarre territory. And Cuckoo is bizarre, make no mistake about it. Luz is, too, but in a much smaller way. Cuckoo is, well, a bit cuckoo.

Singer brings along several repeat collaborators, chief among them Production Designer Dario Mendez Acosta, Cinematographer Paul Faltz, and composer Simon Waskow. Waskow's work, in particular, has begun to greatly interest me; the Luz score is something to behold and has made it into regular, daily rotation. Cuckoo's score will no doubt follow.

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NCBD Addendum:

I wasn't expecting to pick up the first issue of Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood this past week, but dammit do I love Black Suit Spidey, so yeah, I did. 

I've enjoyed all of the Marvel "Black, White and Blood" books I've picked up since they started the series a few years back, and especially when I saw J. M. Dematteis' name on this one, I just couldn't pass it up. There are four stories included of varying lengths. Here's what I thought of each.

1) Losing Face - J.M. DeMatteis/Elena Casagrande

    A fantastic story that spins off of a minor event at the beginning of DeMatteis' seminal Spider-Man Story Kraven's Last Hunt, which admittedly is getting a bit saturated with continuity spin-offs and references of late, however, this was tight and really sweet. 

2) Inside the House - Alyssa Wong/Fran Galán

    A quick little "It's coming from inside the house" type story set during the end of Peter's relationship with the symbiote. Very cool. 

3) Dysmorphia - Dustin Nguyen

    Very short but effective exploration of the inherent body horror in the human/symbiote bonding.

4) Fade to Black - J. Michael Straczynski/Sumit Kumar/Craig Yeung/Dono Sánchez-Almara

    I know JMS has one of the historic runs with Spidey, but I've never read any of it, so I wasn't sure how this would play out for me. Happy to report, I really dug it. A kind of current continuity reassessment of Peter's time with the b

Overall, a great issue that has me pulling out my Spidey short box to dig back into some old Black Suit issues. Can't wait for issue two on September 11!

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Playlist:

Glen Danzig - Black Aria

Vitriol - Eponymous

Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Danzig - Thrall/Demonsweat Live

Danzig - Danzig 4

Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Deftones - Ohms

Jerry Cantrell - Villified (pre-release single)

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

QOTSA - Villains

QOTSA - Lullabies to Paralyze

Azam Ali - Live at Paste Studio NYC live from The Manhattan Center 

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Two of Wands

• Four of Cups

• Five of Wands

Two of Wands tends to suggest avoiding a single-minded Willful push. In other words, there may be more ways to get what you want than the one you're focusing on. Four of Cups in emotional stability, so moving from middle to left I'm getting a "Don't make decisions based on emotion." The five of Wands, then, is a break in emotional stability. This shores up the idea that a big, premeditated decision made in an overly emotional state can be as destructive as not making a decision. More sometimes. Now, what this applies to in my own life at the moment... nope. Never mind. It's work. Loud and clear.