The Mystery Lights - Cerebral Crack

Another fantastic find courtesy of Mr. Brown. I love this record! It reminds me a bit of The Monks' Black Monk Time, a bit of The Black Lips, and a bit of a general "Nuggets" era garage band or bands I can't quite put my finger on. Order the new album Purgatory directly from the band's Bandcamp HERE, from Daptone's new Rock subsidiary Wick Records HERE.

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Watch:

Last night, K and I went to the theatre to see the new E.L. Katz/Simon Barrett film Azrael. Solid Post- Apocalyptic Survival flick. It's also part of what I've come to think of as the "Subtraction Apocalypse" subgenre - you take an apocalyptic event and then remove a sense from the survivors. Josh Malerman's Birdbox takes sight, A Quiet Place takes sound, Azrael has its own spin.

If you're even remotely interested in seeing Azrael in the theatre, do so soon - this one is definitely not going to last past next Thursday on the big box screens. That said, it's another Shudder/IFC collaboration, so it should be on Shudder in 2-3 months.

Also, Coralie Fargeat's Reality+ short film was the subject of a recent article on Bloody Disgusting (read the article HERE), and while I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, I wanted to leave it here as a placeholder. 

I haven't found a Director whose work has grabbed me like this in a very long time.

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Playlist:

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing to Taste

White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000

The Damned - A Night of A Thousand Vampires

Joy Division - Still

Type O Negative - Dead Again

The Mystery Lights - Purgatory

METZ - Up On Gravity Hill

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New Music from The Cure!!!

 

New music from The Cure! From the album Songs Of A Lost World, out November 1st. Pre-order HERE. I definitely wasn't expecting to see this today. I'd heard some titterings that amounted to, "The Cure are up to something," but that's about the extent of any foreknowledge I had of a new album. Full Disclosure: I can't remember the last new Cure record I listened to, kind of left them at Blood Flowers - which I don't know hardly at all - but I'm curious. 

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Watch:

Ready to have your heart ripped open again? The Last of Us season two is coming. Here's the teaser, which I'm not even going to bother to watch.

 

As I'm sure I mentioned here previously, I have never played the Last of Us game, so the storyline is completely new to me. I dig it; however, I will say it's A LOT emotionally, and season one took me a bit to get through. It's more difficult to watch a post-apocalyptic story with such emotional weight when you basically live in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

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NCBD Addendum:

A quick word on the new DSTLRY book, The Missionary, that I mentioned yesterday. Stay away. Awful. Reminds me of when Todd McFarlane and a bunch of the other "hot" artists at the moment split off and formed Image. Yes, Image Comics ended up being a very good thing, but most of those first gen guys should have stuck to art, as they really only approached writing as a means to string a bunch of awesome pictures together. Which, admittedly, was the comic zeitgeist at the time; however, that was also mainly because of them.

Anyway, I couldn't even make it through the first issue of The Missionary. I might try again - Jason Howard's art is fantastic - but man, it's just not good. There's a scene early on with the demon possessing the main character, where they're having this interior monologue back-and-forth that just feels so cheesy; I experienced a similar cringe to the one Beetlejuice Beetlejuice inspired in me several nights ago. Maybe it's because I'm a little over half through my third reading of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, wherein the prose is intelligent and elegant, to say nothing of the plotting and storytelling. Miéville's work unfolds so intricately that I don't have time for a book that seems to be shooting for a goofy take on Angels and Demons, wearing a sort of artistic clumsiness on its sleeve as part of its style. 

No thanks.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Edition)

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Coasters, The Brains & Rezurex - Yakety Yak (single)

Rezurex - Bat Music for Bat People

Beastmilk - Climax

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST

Various - Rocktober Blood OST

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

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John Bonham

44 years ago today. Damn. Maybe When the Levee Breaks is old hat to some, but I'll never get tired of this song, and what's more, this song IS the drums. Not just how they're played, but how they're recorded. 

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Steely Dan - Schlitz Jingle

 Thanks to my good friend Seth for sending this my way, catchiest thing I've heard in some time.

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NCBD:

An interesting haul awaits me later today. Let's see what I'm bringing home for NCBD:

The first issue of Michael Walsh's Frankenstein brought great joy to our house! K loved it, I loved it, and we're both rarin' for more.

Saga issue 69 gets the most appropriate and Saga-like celebration of the number I could have hoped for. I still love this book, despite the cooling of the fervor that settled in with all the hiatuses. 

Ryan Stegman's art on Donny Cates' Venom run a few years ago drew me into that title, and now he's writing a book with Jason "Trees" Howard on art? Definitely picking up this first issue, at the very least. Also, this will be my first Dstlry book. Here's the solicitation, cribbed from League of Comic Geeks:

"Bryce Hunter is a devoutly religious man whose faith is shattered when he catches his wife being...Intimate with an Elder from his church. This harrowing event sends Bryce spiraling into the hands of a demonic entity named Uvydus, Instead of rejecting possession, Bryce ACCEPTS Uvydus. Bryce wants to learn to be “bad” and Uvydus wants to be “less than completely evil.” But before Bryce can use this new partnership to finally live a little, the world's greatest Exorcist sees Bryce as his greatest challenge. But that's not even the worst of it as a murderous group of demons breaks free from Hell and threatens to re-shape earth into a kingdom over which they rule!"

The penultimate issue. Let's see that boom stick, sir!

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Watch:

Another Autumn is upon us, so that means a new V/H/S flick is just around the corner.

 I dug last year's, but these are still usually a mixed bag for me. Still, taking the idea of "Beyond" to this series might make for some very cool ideas. 

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Playlist:

Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

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Card:

Today's card for study is I: The Magus.

Skill and/or Wisdom. Magick. Take initiative.

You know, when I set out to 'study' these cards more, I had grand designs to really dig deep. I certainly have enough stores of knowledge on them assembled. That hasn't actually happened, though. I really haven't been doing anything different than I normally do, drawing a card for the day and writing out its interpretation/possibilities. I want to change that, but there's just not enough damn time at the moment. 

Looking at Crowley's The Book of Thoth, I'm reminded that he refers to this card as "The Juggler." 

New Music from Dance with the Dead

Okay, newish music from Dance of the Dead, as I've meant to post this one for a while now and keep forgetting. That neon green cross in the thumbnail is something I'd pay to have hanging on my walls, so you can say it caught my eye.

From the new EP Dark Matter, out October 25th. They also have a tour coming up, dates for which you can find HERE. 

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Watch:

Last night, K and I finally saw Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. This will be the last time I give Mr. Burton A) the benefit of the doubt and B) my time. 

 

Such a waste of a great cast. It's painful to realize that Mr. Burton is very clearly not the same person he was when he made his mark on pop culture, and it's even more painful to watch him try desperately to recapture that person and fail every time. The last movie by him I saw was Dark Shadows, and that, too, made me cringe about his entire aesthetic, which honestly has always been his main appeal. The problem with style over content is, eventually, if it wears out, it's welcome for want of substance. 

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Playlist:

The Ritual Howls - Into the Water

Miranda Sex Garden - Suspiria

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz

Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light

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Body Count - Comfortably Numb

 Wait... what?

I don't love this, but it's definitely worth posting. "Comfortably Numb" was probably my favorite song when I was a stoned teenager in high school. My friend Anthony and I were obsessed with Pink Floyd, and this song... just moved the world for me. I still love it, but it's not all that often I go back and revisit Floyd in the religious manner I used to. Still, seeing this as a cover by Ice-T's thrash metal band Body Count floored me, and it's definitely worth a listen, as they do some interesting things with the song, which is an advance single from the upcoming album Meerciless, out November 22 on Century Media. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

Last night, K and I watched Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist on Joe Bob Brigg's The Last Drive-In Patreon. The original air date of the episode was 4/3/99 - why does the late '90s look so old to me now? - on a TNT series called Joe Bob's Last Call. 

As a huge fan who only ever heard of Joe Bob in 2018 when he hit Shudder with that Marathon (I never had cable growing up), I've obviously become aware of Monstervision and Up All Night, but Last Call was new to me. I'll have to look to see where that slots in between the others. Anyway, Poltergeist is something of an annual or bi-annual Autumn watch for me, and it was especially wonderful watching it with Joe Bob.

This is a perfect film, in my opinion. I never bothered with the 2015 remake, even out of curiosity, and I likely never will. The world on display in Poltergeist is the world I grew up in - early 1980s suburban America - and that's part of what makes it so effective both as a Horror film and a nostalgia piece. Also, I find it super interesting that the first few times I saw this film I was very young and Jobeth Williams was a "Mom" to me, but over the years as I've aged and the version of her in the film hasn't, she's become one of the hottest Horror movie women I've ever seen. 

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Playlist:

The Damned - AD 2022 Live in Manchester

Human Impact - Gone Dark (pre-release singles)

Human Impact - EP01

Mogwai - God Gets You Back (single)

Dale Crover - Glossolalia

The Mysterines - Afraid of Tomorrows

Bauhaus - Go Away White

Aerosmith - Pump

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF

Body Count - Comfortably Numb (single)

Body Count - Eponymous

Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom

Jane's Addiction - Nothing Shocking

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

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Card:

Today's card is the Ace of Disks:

Financial Breakthrough. Successful implementation of new ideas/rules/parameters in matters of Earthly providence. Growth and prosperity.

New Music from Mogwai!

The legendary Mary Anne Hobbs premiered a new track by Mogwai a couple of days ago, and now here's the video! No word on a new album yet, but smart money says it's coming, as the band also announcned a 2025 world tour, details of which are HERE.

 

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Watch:

K and I went to see Coralie Fargeat's new film The Substance last night. Pretty sure I will not see a better film for the remainder of the year; Robert Eggers has Nosferatu coming, but The Substance is just... see it on a big screen, that's all I can say.

 

The term "Batshit crazy" gets thrown around a lot - hell, I do a fair share of the throwing myself - but once in a great while, a film comes along that reminds me I really had forgotten what Batshit Crazy is. This is that film. I cannot believe I saw this in a big box theatre in Middle America. The Substance is absolutely INSANE. It almost wears out its welcome, then doubles down on the crazy and just... it feels like the most Body Horror movie I may have ever seen. And I don't offer that lightly.

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Read:

Sweet little comic shop pickup I wasn't expecting the other day; shout out to Ryan and Rick's Comic City for pulling this aside when they got it in, presumably from someone selling some old comics:

Published by Arrow Comics in 1986, this was a fascinating read. Not nearly as intricate as Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, this is totally outsider art from before Zombies had become mainstream. A group of survivors make their way through a world not only overrun with Zombies but intelligent zombies. There appears to be a classification here, with the intelligent Dead few and far between but able to manipulate or control the hordes of shambling dead. Very cool concept and execution, a nice piece of the 80s Black and White Explosion's history I'd missed until now. 

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Playlist:

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Bauhaus - Volume One: 1979 - 1983

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Type O Negative - October Rust

The Damned - A Night of a Thousand Vampires

White Hex - Gold Nights

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