From The Damned's double live disc Night of A Thousand Vampires, which Mr. Brown gifted me a few months back, and has in the last week or two, become an indispensable part of my morning ritual and one of my favorite live albums of all time.
Watch:
Last night, I took K to see the new Crow movie. You can read my thoughts over on Letterbxd, but in a nutshell, skip it unless you like having dirt rubbed directly into your eyes.
This is the only Crow I will likely ever recognize.
Read:
I cannot remember the last time I was so excited to read a book:
Written by Giorgio De Maria in 1975 but not translated into English until this year, Warren Ellis posted about The Twenty Days of Turin on his LTD earlier in the week, and the second I read the synopsis, my mind locked with anticipation for reading this. As Ellis writes by way of summary:
"A decade previously, Turin suffered twenty days of mass insomnia marked by nightly massacres committed by persons unseen or indescribable. The many hundreds of witnesses cannot explain what happened."
Literally, all I needed to become obsessed. I've been hemming and hawing with what my next book to read will be, just found it.
Playlist:
The Damned - Night of A Thousand Vampires
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Dave Edmunds - Chronicles 1968-1984
Sweet Lizzy Project - High (single)
Arab Strap - I'm Totally Fine With It Don't Give a F**k Anymore
Fantastic film with extremely strong performances by both Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. JT Mollner created what will possibly rank as the best thriller of the year with this one.
Playlist:
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Uniform - American Standard
Jay Reatard - Singles 06-07
T. Rex - Eponymous
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
Pepper Adams - Encounter!
Amigo the Devil - Born Against
Deftones - White Pony
Wings - Band on the Run
Card:
Using my mini Thoth deck for today's Pull.
• Prince of Disks
• II: The Empress
• Two of Swords: Peace
Thoughtful invention manifests during downtime. Pay close attention to fleeting ideas, as they could become the backbone of strong new ideas/projects. Really good advice for any creative person and something I used to be a lot better at. I think it's time to drill back down on keeping daily notes. K gifted me a couple of moleskins for Christmas last year, one for the book and one for daily notes. I've been using that all year but have kind of slacked off in the last month or so. Great ideas sometimes come from random jottings.
From the new Zeal & Ardor album GREIF, out today. Order direct from the band HERE.
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Ed Brubaker is one of the Executive Producers of Amazon's new Caped Crusader cartoon. I was skeptical about this; Batman is OVERDONE, to say the least, and
I've watched two of these so far, and I really like it. I'm not going to go on my "Fuck commercials on a service I already pay for" rant anymore - the next stage is acceptance, so I'll just pay $2.99 and go commercial-free. The ads are seriously creating way more mental destabilization than you might anticipate. I've boiled that down to them being continuous reminders of the completely corporate world we live in now, but that's a discussion for another time. In the interim, I'm digging this Caped Crusader show a lot, primarily because it's set in the 1940s. That was a stroke of brilliance.
Play:
Whoah. Might be time for me to pick up an Xbox or PS:
I'm not sure if that would be a total waste of time, as the amount of time I allocate to gaming now is minuscule, and I don't really want to raise it by much. But this... breathtaking.
From The Cops' 2007 album Free Electricity. This was a mainstay in my car stereo for much of the late '00s, and then, somehow, it slipped off my radar. Rifling through a CD binder last week, I came across it and the instant I hit play, I fell in love again. This is one of those every-fucking-song albums, meaning every song is fantastic. Check out The Cops Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
All I had to do was watch the first minute of this to know just how goddamn in I am.
I'm overjoyed that Steven Kostanski is bringing back something of the Ghoulies formula and marrying it to a slightly 976-EVIL idea. It says, "In Theatres October 4th," and I can only hope this will land here in Clarksville.
NCBD:
Short list this week.
I LOVE this cover! Also, I have to say, I'm pretty freakin' invested in this book. Really digging seeing Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows play around with Marvel history with two of its most badass characters.
My monthly grilled cheese with tomato soup on the side. I'm not even entirely sure I remember what happened last issue, but it doesn't matter. Restarting GIJOE: ARAH was just a curiosity at first, but I'm enjoying this, so I'll be sticking around for a while.
Chameleon vs. Detro. 'Nuff said. Granted, Chameleon is a character I only know through the IDW Cobra series, and this is obviously a decidedly different version, but still.
Playlist:
Swans - The Glowing Man
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
Blue Karma - The Communication
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Give the People What They Want
Idles - Joy as an Act of Rebellion
Card:
Sticking with the Thoth for a bit. Feels right:
• 5 of Cups: Disappointment
• V: The Hierophant
• 3 of Cups: Abundance
Operating systems, ideas, all networks of the mind and routine have to be balanced right to run smoothly. Adding one too many facets can tip the entire thing out of proportion. I think I'm there with something, I'm just not quite sure what.
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.
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.)
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.
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
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.
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.
Watch:
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-Inwith 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.
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.
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
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.
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).
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.
Read:
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.
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
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.
