New Music From Crippled Black Phoenix!!!

 

From the upcoming album The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature, Out November 29th on Seasons of Mist. Pre-order HERE.

Talk about Epic. The song and the video. Well done.

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Watch:

I rewatched Chris Thomas Devlin and Samuel Bodin's Cobweb last night. This is definitely now an annual Autumn viewing for me. Cobweb has that fairytale gloss over it that I associate with Trick r' Treat and The Mortuary Collection. 

Having just seen Coraline on the big screen for the first time with the recent anniversary screenings, I can make an educated guess Cobweb also shares some DNA with that film, as some key visual and storytelling elements come from similar places. All in all, a very welcome addition to my Autumnal viewing schedule. 

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Read:

The urge had been building for a while, and since I'm in between newly released books at the moment, I decided to reread China Miéville's Perdido Street Station for the third time. 

This is not a light undertaking - the first and my favorite in Miéville's Bas-Lag trilogy, this novel is the very definition of an opus; the plot has so many moving pieces, all of which stay in their own lane and eventually coalesce in a manner I find absolutely stunning. Picking this one up and slipping back into it, I'm also overcome with an unexpected nostalgia; this book was incredibly important to me when I first found it and Miéville back in the early 00s. I was a day-of-release supporter for every book he published from 2005 to 2016 (the trilogy was complete by the time I found it) and only fell off after my life exploded that same year. Since he's published several novels on my list, his most recent a collaboration with Keanu Reeves set in the actor's Bezerker universe. I haven't read the Bezerker comics past the first issue or two of the original series, so this is low on my list. But I'd like to think I'll get to it eventually. 

Also, since I've ended up kind of listing the author's works, I'd be remiss if I did not mention his truly bizarre revamping of Dial H for Hero, twelve issues published by DC Comics in 2012.

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Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

The Misfits - Static Age

The Misfits - American Psycho

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

Algiers - The Underside of Power

Beastmilk - Climax

Jesu - Sun Down Sun Rise

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)

The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

Bauhaus - Go Away White

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Card:

Today's card for study is the Three of Disks - Works:

A welcome reminder this morning, as well. Success through effort. Balance; solid foundations yield sturdy domiciles. 

Frig off, Beetleman!

 

Just be-fucking-cuz.

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NCBD:

One thing I've learned in life is to have Events to look forward to. They can be daily events (opening that first beer at the end of the day), yearly events (new seasons of a show you love, like, let's say, The Last Drive-In on Shudder, just renewed for season seven), or weekly events, like NCBD. So, what does this week's event look like? Let's take a look...

Having just gotten into The Department of Truth last year and read the first four volumes as trade paperbacks, I have to say, there's a definite adjustment taking it down to single issues every month, but I'm here and I'm ready to continue this slow descent into the Kennedy thing.

The final issue of this Eco-Horror mindfuck, and I'm wondering if the "Part One" on the cover means there will be more? 

I'm digging TMNT being bi-monthly. Give my fucking wallet a break, Kevin Eastman.

The end of the current arc, and I'm thinking, a major turning point. LOVE this cover. 

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Watch:

As someone who pays for The Last Drive-In's Patreon, I have access to all the great, older content Joe Bob and Darcy are posting there. LOTS of stuff from the Monstervision era, which is all new to me. Last night's viewing? Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! And now this will no doubt be in my head for the rest of the week:

Watching this with Joe Bob circa 1997,  I was floored by some of the factoids. Like, Keaton was uninterested until Burton told him he would re-write the script and just let him develop the titular Bio Exorcist's schtick. Boy, did that work! Or that, originally, Burton wanted Sammy Davis Jr. to play Beetlejuice. Can't you kind of picture that? Or even that - and I'm sure I knew this back at the time it came out - this was Burton's second feature! This flick has never meant to me what it does to others, but it's weird AF, and I love it for that. Just the fact that they married Calypso music with Goth overtones reminds me of what a genius Burton was at one time. I'll be seeing the new Beetlejuice sooner or later, and I'm looking forward to it. 

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Playlist:

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Various - Learn to Relax! A Tribute to Jehu

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

The High Confessions - Turning Lead Into Gold with the High Confessions

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

Blitz/Berlin - Psycho Goreman OST

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RIP John Cassaday

 

The final track on the band's 1985 album The Head On the Door. Such a great outro to an album that goes through all kinds of emotional disturbances. As this sudden shift in the weather from nearly 100-degree days to cool and smokey 70s took me by surprise, it jump-started my internal Autumn. It's been a few years since I was into The Cure like I am at the moment, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

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RIP:

John Cassaday, Age 52. An absolute GIANT - his work with Warren Ellis on Planetary remains the zeitgeist of 00s comics - a book that redefined pretty much everything about the medium. I think the first time I heard the term "Wide Screen Comics" was in regard to Cassaday and Ellis' seminal series. 

Of course, he also worked with Joss Whedon on his beloved Astonishing X-Men, and while I'm not really a fan of that run, Casssaday's art is once again fantastic. 

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Playlist:

Television - Marquee Moon

Garland Jeffreys - Wild in the Streets (single)

The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

Garland Jeffreys - American Boy & Girl

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

The Cure - The Head on the Door

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God*

Grinderman - Eponymous

*I only made it two tracks into this one. I'll probably try again, but I'm eternally disappointed that Cave and crew just seem to make the same album over and over again ever since Skeleton Tree and, to a lesser extent, Push the Sky Away, both of which I like upon release, but now feel a lot like Al Pacino's performance in Scent of a Woman - they're just stuck in the same phase. I miss the days when one Bad Seeds record would sound like The Boatman's Call, the next Abbatoir Blues or Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

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Card:

Today's card for study is the Eight of Wands - Swiftness:

Clear communication. Anti Confusion. Be upfront. Be real. Decisiveness. 

Monday, September 9, 2024

Sway 7A, Baby

 

It's just the best Rock n' Roll song ever recorded from the best Rock n' Roll album ever released.

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Watch:

This recent trend with prequels to 70s Horror classics hasn't given us very much in the way of anything worth hanging onto. The idea that Paramount has a Rosemary's Baby prequel called Apartment 7A coming straight to Paramount Plus didn't move the needle with me at all until I saw Julia Garner is the lead. She will FOREVER be in my good book for Ruth from Ozark. Here's the trailer, which I didn't bother with; I'll just watch and assess when it lands on the streamer come September 27th:

 

I should also mention that there's more good news: Apartment 7A is Directed and Co-written by Natalie Erika James, whose 2020 flick Relic made quite the impression on me (it's definitely time for a rewatch of that one, and it's currently streaming on Shudder).

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Read:

I blew through Nathan Ballingrud's novella Crypt of the Moon Spider yesterday. Both the Hardcover and Paperback are currently available; I posted the paperback's cover art last week, primarily because that's the version I chose for my shelf, as I liked the art just a smidge more; here's the Hardback:

It's fantastic but short, and the advance chapter from the second book of his Lunar Gothic Trilogy that serves as an epilogue to this volume only made me want MORE! Seriously, Ballingrud writes Science Fiction with a silver lining of Horror and it's GLORIOUS! 

Now, however, I'm in between books. Bad Hand Books began shipping Laird Barron's new collection, Not A Speck of Light, last week. However, I've not received a shipment notice yet, so I have some time to kill, and I'm not quite sure what will adequately follow Ballingrud. 

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Playlist:

Ministry - Psalm 69

Bauhaus - Go Away White

Ghost Bath - Self Loather

The Cops - Free Electricity

Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified

Megadeth - Rust in Peace 

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Friday, September 6, 2024

Bauhaus - Adrenaline

From their 2008 album Go Away White, which caught a fair amount of slack when it came out, but honestly, always sounded pretty fucking great to me.

 

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Watch:

Writing this Friday night with a pretty good head of steam. Since I pretty much passed out after the second movie of Joe Bob's Nightmareathon last week, I'm picking up the slack this week. I started with Fade to Black, a flick I've started watching several times before and never finished (not the movie's fault), and I found it to be just okay until the third act, which I actually thought was pretty fantastic.

   

The Nightmareathon segued into Children of the Corn after Fade to Black, and I wasn't in the mood for that, so I decided to re-watch Joe Bob host Spookies from The Last Drive-In Season three. Talk about a damn good time:

Some of the sound design really blew me away, and overall, you really have to admire anyone who makes such an absolutely batshit crazy flick. 

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Playlist:

The Cure - The Top

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery

Bauhaus - Gotham

Blut Aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy

Bauhaus - Go Away White

Joy Division - Still

Blackbraid - Warriors (single)

Ghost Bath - Moonlover

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer.

I guess it's Fall, eh?

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Card:

Today's card for study is II: The Priestess:

Alchemical marriage of elements to conceive a new thing (idea, being). This is the cosmic womb that takes I: The Magus's seed and gestates it into a new form. 

Raw Creation, and thus, Will. Tapping into a power greater than your own.

New Music from Jerry Cantrell!!!

 

The second single from Jerry Cantrell's upcoming album, I Want Blood, out on October 18th. Pre-order HERE.

Loving this new record so far. Jerry Cantrell is one of those humans who I root for 

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Watch:

I am unfamiliar with Patricio Valladares's previous films; however, when I first read about her upcoming Invoking Yell, she instantly caught my attention. A found footage film that follows an all-female Black Metal band in Chile, set in the 90s? Events go awry through their penchant for recording paranormal phenomena for their records? What a fantastic idea. 

 

Invoking Yell hits VOD on September 20th.

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Read:

I woke up early this morning and blew through pretty much the entirety of Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House. I honestly don't know if there is a work of graphic fiction I love more than this one, especially issue #14:

This was instrumental in so much of who I have become. The dialogue, plotting, characters, and the way Gaiman weaves his own brand of dream logic throughout the series, as well as the way a large part of that crescendoes in this volume. We get the resolution for the missing Nightmares Brute and Glob, and how their machinations have affected the world - and the DCU - while Morpheus was indisposed. We are introduced to Lyta and Hector Hall, tying directly into previous Golden Age (?) iterations of 'The Sandman." We get the Corinthian and the Cereal convention, more of those amazing 'confessional' moments that echo back to Volume #1's 24 Hours. Gaiman knows spooky fantasy, but he also knows human nature at its lightest and darkest. Oh yeah, and we meet Hob Gadling, so Gaiman knows his classic English Literature and folklore as well. 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s)

Blut Aus Nord - 777 The Desanctification

Blut Aus Nord - 777 Cosmosophy

METZ - Up On Gravity Hill (Thanks, Jacob!!!)

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Card:

Today's card for study is IV - The Emperor:

Rules that govern Life. THIS is an important aspect of the card that I tend to gloss over. When this comes up, it's a reminder to adhere to the boundaries of life, i.e., what keeps you alive. There's also the martial aspect, a further reminder of rigor. That said, there's also a flipside that reminds us not to let rationality and, by extension, civilization become a prison. So balance. That's the name of the game, and it's borne out by the image on the card. 

Decisiveness and linear thinking. 

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Brigitte Calls Me Baby - Too Easy

 

From their forthcoming debut full-length album Too Easy, out now. Order HERE. Really digging this band. 

 

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Watch:

Wes Craven passed away on August 30th, 2015, so for the last few nights, I've been watching some of his lesser-known works for a tribute episode we're going to do on The Horror Vision. Last night, I chose Shocker.

 

I saw this back when it first hit VHS, but not since. Let me tell you, this was way more enjoyable than I remembered! Shocker is a totally misguided attempt to make another Freddy-level character/mythology, and while the film fails to do that, it ends up being super fun just from how hard it swings for that ball. Mitch Pileggi deserves a goddamn award for how 'all-in' he goes with the role of Horace Pinker, and while a whole lotta the movie makes no sense whatsoever - why park a van with your name on it in front of the house where you're killing people? Why does Jonathan's girlfriend come back as a powerful spirit for good? How could all the police in this town be that fucking stupid? - none of the inconsistencies, absurdities and downright missteps do anything but add to the fun. 

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Prince - Little Red Corvette (single)

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

The Ocean - Heliocentric

Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Peter Gabriel - So

Oranssi Pazuzu - Valotus (pre-release single)

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Card:

Today's card for study is the Six of Wands: Victory.

View troubles and disruptions as lessons - they have been necessary to grow. Life is Victory simply by living. Not everyone makes it out of the Strife and Chaos of the Fives.