As I wrote about last week, I'm really only now getting to know Exister, the late Luis Vasquez's final album. Go figure - the one that didn't make that big of an impression on me upon its first release has become my favorite.
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I finally got around to watching Jang Jae-hyun's Exhuma on Shudder. This was on quite a few "Best of 2024" lists I saw and I must say, that ranking is well deserved. Here's a trailer that happily tells you very little of what to expect.
This felt more like short, episodic premium television series stuck together into a film, a bit like Demián Rugna's Terrified, so that's not a bad thing. I really enjoyed Exhuma, although I ended up breaking it into two viewings. The sad state of my life at this time is it's pretty difficult to garner 134 minutes to sit still and watch a film. Sucks, but it's my current version of reality.
Highlly recommended.
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I found a pretty interesting interview with Weird Fiction/Horror Author T.E.D. Klein. This man's work was all but lost, with beat-up paperbacks from the 80s/90s going for absurd amounts of money on auction sites, so until a few years ago, I'd only ever read "The Events at Poroth Farm" (1972). Thanks to PS Publishing/Drugstore Indian Press's diligence in bringing Klein's work back into print, I finally acquired and read The Ceremonies in 2022 and loved it. Still haven't gotten around to Dark Gods, however, that'll probably happen this year.
One beautiful piece of music I've often taken for granted.
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Friday night, I watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on Joe Bob Brigg's The Last Drive-In Patreon. I'd seen this posted on the Patreon a while ago and had been saving it. Couldn't think of a better time; I'm two-thirds through my rewatch of Twin Peaks The Return and wanted to slow the roll on that. It's definitely gained momentum fast while watching, and I backed off to kind of savor it.
The original air date of this one was March 6, 1999, on Joe Bob's Last Call. One of the cool things about the Patreon is even though Joe Bob's old shows were basic cable and, therefore edited, the films they put up are the whole enchilada.
I can't say I agreed with most of JB's commentary on the film. However, it was '99, and Twin Peaks was a distant memory to pop culture at large (not to me and my friends; Brown, myself and two other friends would make our first sojourn to the Twin Peaks Fest (RIP) in Washington state a year later in 2000), so without a fresh rewatch of the series - which would have been somewhat hard to do unless you had the Worldvision VHS box set I'd had since it was released in 1993 for $99.95 (had to look the release date on that one up), you probably hadn't seen the series since it originally aired in 90/91 or perhaps when the Bravo network reaired it in 1993. So FWWM would make even less sense.
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Speaking of surrealist Horrro, I finally got around to starting Sopia Ajram's Coup de Grâce.
Here's the description lifted directly from Goodreads:
A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.
Don't remember where I first heard of this one, but I'm enjoying it so far, even though I'm still having a lot of trouble concentrating on prose at the moment.
Playlist:
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything
Flogging Molly - Float
Riccardo Muti - Verdi: Requiem & Cherubini: Requiem in C Minor
Wolves in the Throne Room - Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge EP
Wolves in the Throne Room - Diadem of 12 Stars
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion
Boston Baroque, Conductor: Martin Pearlman - Chrubini: Requiem in C Minor
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Earlier this week, I fell into a pretty hard jag listening to Testament's older records and it made me realize just how underrated these guys were, historically speaking. It definitely seems like their status has elevated with time, which is great
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K and I caught Heart Eyes at the local theatre last night, and while I've definitely grown a little weary of Michael Landon's 'quirky' tone, this is a super fun popcorn Slasher.
Heart Eyes is almost exactly 50% Romantic Comedy, 50% Slasher flick. That's a weird mix, but it mostly works. It's heavy on the 'cute' factor, which is where I occasionally lost my patience with the film, but mileage may vary. I think Josh Ruben's directing anchored this one from floating too far out into quirkyville.
I saw both of these bands live back in 2014 at the Summer Slaughter Fest at Hollywood's House of Blues. Both made a great impression, but it was Revocation that really hit. Cattle Decapitation was great, but my history with the band starts and stops with that show. Digging this collaboration between Revocation and C.D. singer Travis Ryan.
No word if this heralds a new Revocation album, but they're about due based on their past release schedule. This reminds me a bit of the Mastodon/Lamb of God collaboration a few months ago.
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I completely forgot about posting this trailer for Oz Perkins' The Monkey:
I LOVE this trailer! Man, Oz has really had some unbelievably cool marketing for these last two flicks, and I think it has A LOT to do with why these are so successful. So while blumhouse continues to be the trailer bane of the Horror Fan's existence, Neon has really risen to the occasion and will hopefully lead other distributors by example. There's no way The Monkey doesn't smash the box office, and this trailer has a lot to do with the hype.
Also, some pretty great full page inner front cover and back cover ads in the most recent Fango for this, too:
See? These are fantastic!
There's been such a 'vibe' for both The Monkey and LONGLEGS, and that vibe ads to the success. PLEASE let others learn this lesson. Don't make me NOT want to see your movie with the marketing for it (cough*blumhouse*cough).
A week or so ago, I saw a post on social media that alarmed me - Luis Vasquez, the singular voice of The Soft Moon, died a year ago! I had no idea...
When I realized I hadn't posted anything from this band since the day after seeing them live in 2018, I guess it makes sense that they were far enough off my radar that I missed the news of Vasquez's passing in January of 2024 and for, you know, the entire remainder of the year. I was in L.A. for the entirety of January 2024, but pulling last year's Moleskin off the shelf, I see that I spent January 18th at Santa Monica Brewworks with my good friend Chris. Looking at my post from that day, I didn't find a serendipitous dalliance with The Soft Moon's music, and scrolling through their discography, I realized I'd kind of tuned them out after 2018's Criminal. 2022's Exister only shows up three times in my daily playlists on this page.
It also makes sense that I never saw the short film "Stupid Child," a kind of tense noise interstitial for one of the tracks from Exister. This is possibly the most harrowing thing Vasquez had a hand in - the video to "Needs" is pretty fucked up, but I'd say this tops that easily.
Glad I got to see The Soft Moon live. Great band that had so much more in them. Fuckin' Fentanyl.
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K and I are currently rewatching Yellowjackets seasons one and two as prep for the new season starting on Valentine's Day. Rewatching, I realize there is so much of season two I somehow completely forgot.
K typically conks out earlier than I do, so after she falls asleep, I've been continuing my first rewatch of Twin Peaks: The Return since 2018.
I'd never watched The Return directly after the original series before, and honestly, I don't know that I'd do it this way again. There's such a marked difference between the two; every time I watch the original, I fall in love with it all over again, so to switch gears and jump headlong into the follow-up that is not really concerned with being a follow-up at all felt a bit jarring at first. In fact, after the first two episodes, I was starting to think I didn't like The Return. That feeling didn't last that long, though. By the time I got to episode three or four, my brain had caught up, and I had reemerged.
There's so much about The Return that I love, but first, I have to remind myself that this is 100% a creative vehicle for David Lynch - really his last large-scale vehicle - and he used it to shoot what many TP fans felt was idiosyncratic content that had nothing to do with the answers and resolutions they'd been hoping for since the second season finale aired on June 10, 1991. Lynch famously did things 100% on his own terms (except with Dune, and look how that turned out), and continuing what he'd started and begrudgingly lost control of nearly thirty years ago was definitely not on his "to do" list. I've definitely spent some time wondering what might have been had the show continued, and as usual, those contemplations only yield one result: Better to leave 'em wanting more than to overstay your welcome. Still...
So it took a bit to recalibrate myself coming into this rewatch of The Return, but now I'm 100% in. Friday night, I watched episodes seven and eight, and I was once again struck by (of course) episode eight's absolute grandeur. I woke up the next day wanting to read some critical writing on the series. Happily, I found some excellent articles.
First, this article HERE on the Wrong Answers blog, where Abigail Nussbaum makes some excellent points about what I have long felt is both the saddest and most remarkably compelling aspects of the series, namely how well it mirrors the disappointments of life. The lyrics to Eddie Vedder's contribution to The Return's soundtrack sums this up beautifully:
Next, Crypto-Kubrology's article on Medium reminded me of a theory I'd read about once before, shortly after the series aired. Namely, that episodes 17 and 18 may very well have been intended to be watched at the same time.
As a huge fan of The Flaming Lips' Zaireeka, this idea makes me giddy with anticipation, and while Zaireeka has become all but impossible for me to orchestrate listening to properly, 17 & 18 will simply require I muster the wherewithal to carry the tv in my office downstairs and set it up next to* the one in the living room. I have at least three Blu-Ray players, so no problem there.
White The Return may be unlike the original Twin Peaks in most ways, one thing the two series share is the ability to reward repeated viewings with ever more mystery.
*Although Cryto-Kubrology's screenshots make me wonder if the screens would be better served stacked as opposed to side-to-side, but I'll take what I can get.
Playlist:
The Veils - Asphodels
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
Frank Black - Cult of Ray
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Sleep - Dopesmoker
High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• VI The Lovers
• Six of Pentacles
• King of Pentacles
Surface reads are always something I avoid, almost to the fact that sometimes I feel like I tend to resist instances where the cards attempt to convey something simply. I'll not make that mistake today. The Lovers is an obvious nod to K and I celebrating out 9th anniversary this past Saturday. Six of Pentacles is a reminder of the stability I have now, a goal I set and accomplished with no small degree of Will. And King of Pentacles is both a nod to giving more attention to everyday Earthly matters (Malkuth), and that I need to listen to more Sabbath; kinda slacking off lately.
You know you're getting up there when your favorite, most influential post-High School albums start turning 30. How is Teenager of the Year three decades young? I mean, seriously?
Last weekend, K and I drove up to Chicago for a few days. Saturday night I met up with a bunch of old friends and saw the first night of Black's Teenager of the Year 30th Anniversary show at the Metro. Mr. Brown was in attendance, and it felt like such a full circle moment - Brown was the friend who got me into so much of the most influential music of my twenties. In 1995, I'd gotten out of a three-year relationship begun in High School.
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Last Thursday, K and I had the distinct pleasure of catching Steven Soderbergh's new film Presence.
Not posting a trailer, partially because I haven't seen one and don't have the time to vet one of spoilers, partially because I LOVE the posters they've released for this film. Soderbergh is always a class act, and his film about a haunted house is exactly what you'd expect by being nothing you would expect.
This film blew me away, and I implore any even remotely interested parties to seek this one out while it's still on the big screen. Mind you, this isn't a movie you have to see on the big screen, like The Substance or Nosferatu. However, the camera flows across that massive screen in a way that just intoxicates. In a way, this isn't a "Horror" film in that Horror films generally unfold via events, and there are not a lot of events here. This is a character study of a family first and foremost. That said, when things get fucked up, they get really fucked up. Presence has one of the most disturbing concepts in it I've seen in some time.
NCBD Addendum:
I wasn't going to pick this new SIKTC: Book of Cutter one-shot up, but due to this rolling disaster that is Diamond Distribution, my take-aways from Rick's felt pretty light on Wednesday, and I admit, I was very curious to learn more about the SIKTC mythology, which this book pays off with in droves.
Loved it. More prose than graphic fiction, Book of Cutter really delves into the order of St. George's history while also advancing Maxine Slaughter as a soon-to-be major player in the ongoing SIKTC book. Reading this made me excited about the overall world-building in a way I haven't been since shortly after realizing I love the flagship book but not necessarily the ancillary titles. Might be time to revisit House of Slaughter...
So much music unfurled while I was doing David Lynch week and then in Chicago for three days. Shit, I haven't even mentioned the Frank Black Teenager of the Year 30th Anniversary I attended yet. I'll get to all that, but first - holy smokes! I'll tell you that, while I LOVE Infinite Granite, I was hoping that would prove a detour. I don't need the Deafheaven to only play brutal music, but to me, the mix they achieve on Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is perfect. Regardless of what we get on Lonely People With Power, out March 28th (pre-order HERE), "Magnolia" fills me with faith that, as my cousin Charles' friend Dave predicted, the band made Infinite Granite for them, and it had nothing to do with their overall ambitions/directions.
NCBD:
This is a new Rick Remender book. I've missed out on the last few he's released; hell, I've actually not read anything he's done since A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance, so I'm due. I tried the first issue of a few series since then and didn't really 'feel it,' so here's hoping The Seasons moves the needle.
Published through Remender's Giant Generator, I grabbed the first issue of Dust to Dust and dug it, so I'm coming back for more. Unfortunately, this Diamond bankruptcy is killing my shop, and I've already heard this is outstanding, much the same as the latest issue of What's the Furthest Place From Here has been for weeks now.
Also confirmed as delayed due to Diamond's BS. I'm still really on the fence with Mark Spears' Monsters, but I figure I'll round out the first four-issue arc and reassess after.
This is one I'll need a full re-read on once it's all out, but I've been enjoying the hell out of this second Last Ronin series. I've said it here before, but the dystopian Frank Miller-isms of this series really scratch an itch. An itch for when Frank Miller wasn't a douche bag.
This cover is the stuff from which dreams are made.
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I caught the trailer for Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk's Hell of a Summer on the big screen last week, and it kinda blew me away.
Yeah, it's more throwback, but I don't care. This looks fantastic.
Playlist:
Moon Wizard - Sirens
The Veils - Asphodels
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Remember your Art (XIV in Thoth) when bogged down in Earthly matters. Enlightenment lies in balancing the two.
