I heard this at some point last weekend, and it struck me that I've never posted it here. I have loved this song as far back as I can remember. A lot of 80s 'hits' became essentially ubiquitous decades ago, however, this one never fails to grab my attention for its duration.
From Stevie Nick's second solo album, The Wild Heart, released in 1983. That would have been when I first heard this, too. I didn't have MTV, but a friend did, and this one was all over 80s radio.
NCB:
Short week this week. Wheww! After last week, I'm definitely up for a short pull:
A new Image book I thought I'd give a try. Sounds cool. Here's the solicitation blurb, straight from League of Comic Geeks:
"When Jonathan Reason falls asleep, he becomes... something else. Every night, it stalks his quiet town, killing (seemingly) indiscriminately. When he wakes, covered in blood, our story begins. This new horror mystery from ZANDER CANNON (Heck, Top 10, Kaijumax) shows us the horrifying waking hours of an unwilling part-time killer."
I'm unfamiliar with Cannon's work, however, I really dig books where the creator writes and draws, and sleep has always fascinated me, so I'm looking forward to where this may take me.
The second volume of Zac Thompson's Body Fantasy/Horror Into the Unbeing comes to a close. Will there be a third? Can't wait to find out!
One more after this one. I have loved this book, loved every cover, but none more than this one. Majestic,
Watch:
While I am not the biggest fan of Andy Muschietti's IT movies - they're good, for sure, but also definitely have their issues - I am very excited to get out from under the time constraints of a theatrical release run-time and revisit Derry in a premium television format.
If HBO's Welcome to Derry can even be half what Castle Rock was, I will be happy. There's a full article over on Bloody Disgusting for more information. No release date yet.
Helmet on KEXP! Thank you to Mr. Brown for sending this my way. Fantastic seeing Hamilton and his current band slice through a nice, tight set.
Read:
Yesterday was K's birthday, so I planned for us to stay a night at the historic Belle Air Mansion, which was originally built in 1790 as a private residence and eventually opened to the public in its current restored state in 2019. Since moving to Tennessee in August of 2022, we haven't made it out to Nashville more than a dozen times. It's a city thriving with the wrong kind of consumerism, and other than pockets we've found here and there, not a place either one of us is very eager to frequent. One of those pockets is the area around Dashwood Vintage Market, a BOHO Vintage and Flora shop that captured her heart immediately upon entering. Nearby are several other Vintage shops, one that has a great Vinyl area (Jimbo's) and one (Rivival) that serves as the closest thing to an independent bookstore I've seen since moving here. There were places all over Nashville like this when I was first here in 2005, but in the long corridor between then and now, "Nash Vegas" became the call of the city, and strip malls, franchises and country-star-owned multiplex drinking venues have replaced a lot of the charm. Think of it as kind of a Microcosm/Macrocosm of our society - vulgarity replaced intellectualism long ago, and our current fearless leader seems intent on ensuring that is the only way forward for the States.
Anyway...
Belle Air Mansion is gorgeous. Pricey but located close to the aforementioned Vintage markets, we arrived at 3:00 PM and relaxed into our room, the rustic 1790 Hideaway. After a brief respite, we headed out to Dashwood, only to realize we missed its operating hours by about ten minutes.
Drat!
Upon entering Revival, I quickly located the Sci-Fi/Horror section and nearly keeled over when I saw original copies of Weird Tales 291 - 302, with a few missing in there. This is from the late 80s/early 90s period revival of the magazine, and while I only grabbed two of them that first night, we returned the next morning so I could correct that mistake and procure the rest.
As a Lovecraft and Derleth fan from my early teenage years, I of course know what Weird Tales was, but while I inherently assumed there had been some revival iterations of the literary periodical, I had never seen any edition of the magazine in the wild. Seeing these, holding them in my hands and eventually reading through several stories and columns ("The Eyrie" - essentially the letters column; "The Den" - the review column), I was instantly strengthened by finding an item so intrinsically in tune with my nature, yet also completely crestfallen. Just typing the words 'literary periodical' above thrills me that such a thing ever could have existed. I have a mental and tactile record in my history of a world where a magazine like this could exist, where inside its pages you find multiple ads for other, completely independently run literary magazines available by subscription - the addresses listed for contact clearly the progenitor's home address - but we are so far past this in 2025, anyone who doesn't have the experiential knowledge of this era would surely never know or perhaps even believe it ever existed.
Issue 291 (Summer 1988) was the first I dove into. Featuring a spotlight on Tannith Lee (2 whole Novellas, or "Novelettes" as the editors refer to them) alongside stories by Ronald Anthony Cross, Morgan Llyewelyn, Nancy Springer, Brian Lumley, Harry Turtledove and Ken Wisman, this magazine is a veritable Feast of genre literature. Illustrated entirely by Stephen Fabian with verse by a wide range of authors, I'm absolutely in love with Weird Tales.
Looking into the history of this revival, it seems the magazine continued unchanged until 1994 when it lost the use of the Weird Tales moniker and became Worlds of Fantasy & Horror - a fantastic name in its own right, but one that was ultimately lacking the, ugh, 'brand recognition' to continue forward with any real momentum. There have been subsequent iterations as well, but I'm limiting my focus - for the time being at least - to what I have, perfect when you consider the years of operation for this revival match up perfectly to when I would have read my first Lovecraft-related work, August Derleth's The Lurker on the Threshold.*
Something I never knew but discovered on the Weird Tales Wikipedia page is that in 1995, HBO licensed the name with the intention of producing a Tales From the Crypt-style anthology show that unfortunately never happened. With Directors like Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone attached, it really is a shame this did not line up with the revival because that might have sealed the deal insofar as cementing an audience.
* Motivated by Metallica and Iron Maiden's references to HPL, I found a copy of this in the old Record Swap that used to rule the Southwestern corner of Harlem and 159th in Tinley Park, IL. This was at a time before Borders had moved into Chicago's south suburbs, before the stand-alone mega structure B&N, when mall-based bookshops like Kroch's and Brentano's were really all I knew, and HPL was not carried there or in my local library. The edition, Carroll & Graff's 1988 mass market paperback, features HPL's name in text almost as large as the title, but nowhere on the cover does it mention the actual author, August Derleth, so for years I went on thinking this was Lovecraft's work.
Playlist:
Butthole Surfers - Live at the Leather Fly
Henry Rollins and Mother Superior - Get Some Go Again Sessions
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Danza III: The Alpha - The Omega
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Soft Kill - An Open Door
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP
SOD - Speak Spanish or Die
The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)
Tangerine Dream - In Seach of Hades: The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979
Interpol - Antics
Helmet - Betty
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
The Bengals - All Over the Place
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Wands
• Page of Cups
• Ace of Wands
Female-inspired energy - "she can help you"- massive outpouring of power.
Spending K's birthday weekend with her, a lot of unfettered time that we don't normally get, and I'm feeling recharged. Also: "Dreams can become reality," as a notation in the grimoire, as well as, "Pay attention to your dreams." K and I both had a very early night last night and super strong dreams after our second sleep interval. Let's see what I dream tonight. Perhaps I can go back to writing them down. Always a power boost, that.
Butthole Surfers released a live album today! Live At the Leather Fly is on all streamers and available for order on vinyl. It doesn't look like distributor Sunset Blvd Records has a web store, however, one thing I thought was pretty cool is their "buy" link takes you to the standard link tree, only the Record Store Day website sits atop all the other links. From this website, you can order the record from a list of independent record stores nationwide. I thought that was pretty cool.
Apparently, the Leather Fly is not a real club, and there's no real record of when this show took place that I could find. Presumably, the liner notes might have something. However, this is the Butthole Surfers we're talking about...
"Back in the 80s Gibby used to fantasize about a nightclub called the Leather Fly. He wanted it to have a stuffed leather fly hanging in front of it." - That's a Paul Leary quote that's on the youtube page for this song. The album has a fantastic track listing, leaning heavily on pre-Capitol Records Surfers (the best Surfers) but with a peppering of what may have been early versions of tracks that would wind up on that Capitol debut, Independent Worm Saloon. I thought about posting something older than what I went with, but this version of "The Annoying Song" is pretty epic, and it just kind of felt right to put this out in the world today.
NCBD:
I spent Monday-Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio on a totally impromptu trip based around K's Grandmother's failing health, so I did not get a chance to make it out to the comic shop until last night. Here's what I brought home:
The new arc begins and Megatron is back, kicking ass and taking names. This series has a level of brutality to it that I very much appreciate - one major character meets a crazy, violent end in this one, and it adds to the chaotic uncertainty that haunts the characters. That's a pretty cool approach to the Transformers, who historically kind of hit the ground running wherever you drop them.
Lemire and Walta bring us a new chapter in the current story arc, "The Horror Men," and it's more Highway-based X-Files meets Twin Peaks. We're going deep and dancing on the precipice of some answers, but that only makes it feel like we might have a much bigger picture than first alluded to. Love this book so very much.
I'm pretty bummed to see Justin Jordan and Maan House's Mine is a Long, Lonesome Grave end. This final issue felt a bit rushed, but that might just mean I need to re-read the entire arc from the beginning. There's a much wider world we're only scratching at here, and I'd love to know more about the lineage of "the Weaver Witches" that we come in at the end of.
Before I dig into the fourth and final issue of The Hive, I'm going to go back and re-read the entire series. This one has some story compression that I came at lopsided, and when I read last month's issue #3, I felt a bit lost. Really cool story and art, though, and with the collected "Volume One" announced for August, I'm hoping we might get a second volume at some point.
I had completely forgotten James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses started up this week. I know nothing about this one other than it is a double-sized (at least) book. Very much looking forward to reading this.
Oh my! I heard there was a big surprise in this year's Energon Universe Special, but I wasn't prepared for...
Matt Trakker from M.A.S.K.! I wasn't really into MASK as a kid - there was a limit to what my folks would buy me and I think I somehow inherently understood that to add another toyline to my obsession would seriously delute what I could procure from Joe and Transformers - so I'm not nearly as invested in their presence being brought into the Energon Universe as others might be, however, I think it's awesome this is unfolding the way it is.
This is yet another notch in Oni Press's 2025 championship belt! Dark Regards is a comedic Black Metal tale of the forming of the band Witch Taint and, ah, Lance, the King of Black Metal! First issue delivered the goods on satire, so I'm in.
Very pleased to see Batman: Dark Patterns is going a full 8 issues!
Watch:
This is everything everyone is saying it is, and yes, I almost threw up.
How I made it 65% of the way through the film without realizing it's a take on Cinderella, I don't know. What I do know is The Ugly Stepsister is fantastic - dark and funny and gross and poignant, and Writer/Director Emilie Blichfeldt is one to watch. For your first film to be a period piece of such social and psychological scope is no small feat, and a lot of props should go out to the cast, as well. Especially lead Lea Myren, who goes through every possible emotion on film, sometimes in the course of a few seconds. The things "Elvira" goes through are... insane.
Henry Rollins & Mother Superior - Get Some Go Again Sessions
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Interpol - Antics
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Swords
• Page of Swords
• X: Wheel of Fortune
When Emotions affect Earthly concerns, indecision can look a lot like opportunity and vice versa.
Man, this tells me nothing! I think this is work, but I'm so out of touch with the cards and work at the moment, I'm going to have to just keep an eye on my emotions when dealing with certain folks.
Weird rabbit hole yesterday wherein I saw The Jeff Healey Band's The Lost Roadhouse Soundtrack had recently been released. This immediately sent me to YouTube, where I found and watched Healey's 1988 Network television debut on the old NBC Lettermen show and although I saw it when it aired and have seen it a handful of times since, I was once again completely blown away. It's hard not to be. This, in turn, led to my discovery of a forthcoming Jeff Healey documentary, See the Light.
Watch:
Looks like this one is in pre-production, but still hopeful for a 2025 release. Nice crop of interview subjects (Steve Cropper!), and a really love realizing that there seems to be a healthy 'Cult of Jeff' out there. I've talked about this here before, but being a consummate Lettermen fan from a young age, I was exposed to Healey throughout the 80s on the show and he always blew me away. I didn't turn out the biggest fan of The Blues as a genre, however, key songs and artists from that era made an impact on me, Healey perhaps more than most.
Playlist:
Preoccupations - Ill At Ease
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Pinky Tuscadero's Whiteknuckle Assfuck - Halfway to Honky Heaven
Dum Dum Girls - Too True
George Michael - Faith
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Various - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo
Various - Cowboy Bebop OST
Anthrax - Among the Living
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In)
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
The Jeff Healey Band - Road House (The Lost Soundtrack)
Led Zeppelin - I
Sha Na Na - The Night Is Still Young
Orville Peck - Pony
Led Zeppelin - IV
INXS - Kick
The Plimsouls - Everywhere At Once
Drab Majesty - Careless
Card:
Such a beautiful card. At times, this is my favorite in the deck. There is a cosmic or eternal renewal association with this card, and that's what I'm connecting to at the moment. I'm not sure how that fits into my current day-to-day, but as usual, when stymied, I keep my eyes peeled.
When I added Preoccupations back into my regular rotation a week or two ago, I had zero idea they had a new album coming out. I woke up this morning and saw Apple's push notification that Ill At Ease had been released, promptly made coffee and have been sitting outside listening to it in the post-storm morning since. Exceptional album! A surprise like this is so rare these days, and I am cherishing it!
You can purchase Ill At Ease from Born Losers Records HERE.
Watch:
I was super excited to see Sean Byrne's new flick, Dangerous Animals, is getting a wide theatrical push. I still say Devil's Candy would have been an absolute banger if it had played theatres, but, unfortunately, it came out before this new post-pandemic, Independent Horror friendly world we live in.,
While I'm not really one for mean-spirited torture films, I've come to know Byrne's work enough to know this will be something more than it seems when it opens on June 6th.
Playlist:
Gibby Haynes - Third Man Records Blue Series
The Black Belles - What Can I Do? (single)
The Raveonettes - PE'AH II
Pinky Tuscadero's Whiteknuckle Assfuck - Halfway to Honky Heaven
P.M. Dawn's 1991 album Of the Body, Of the Soul and the Cross: The Utopian Experience is now available on streamers!
I talked a lot about this one back in January of 2021 - basically, this is a song and now an album that, while I wasn't overtly into at the time of its release (I would have been fifteen), has become a huge nostalgia trigger for me. Very cool to finally listen to the entire record.
NCBD:
A solid week of books. Let's get into it:
Plague House's first issue sold me on two things: 1) I am all-in on Michael W. Conrad and Dave Chisholm's Haunted House book, and 2) Oni Press has already captured 2025 as their year, in my opinion.
James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe's Jersey Devil bio has had some pretty crazy moments in it so far, so although I'm kind of looking for books to cut at the moment, I'm definitely going to hang with this one until it ends with issue four. Piotr Kowalski's art, in particular, has really added an ominous sense of momentum to this story.
The cover alone sells the F_CK out of this book.
I completely forgot about this Black Metal-infused, supernatural Folk Horror revenge book by Brian Azzarello, Vanesa Del Rey and Hilary Jenkins. I dug the first two issues, so my forgetfulness is caused by this one's bi-monthly release schedule more than disinterest.
Watch:
The full trailer for Together dropped a few days ago, and while I'll leave it right here for posterity's sake, not watching this one.
Written and Directed by Michael Shanks and starring Dave Franco, Alison Brie, and one of my favorite actors, Damon Herriman, Together carries with it an unstated implication that this will be this year's big Body Horror movie. I find such an unquantifiable thrill in having this sub-genre on its way to becoming a household word. Blows me away.
Together is slated to hit theatres August 1st, and I will be there opening day!
Playlist:
Drab Majesty - Careless
Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu
The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed EP
Godflesh - Decline and Fall EP
Antibalas - Where The Gods Are In Peace
P.M. Dawn - Of the Heart, Of the Soul and the Cross: The Utopian Experience
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins EP
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Steve Moore - Christmas, Bloody Christmas OST
Zombi - Shape Shift
Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
OLD - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak
Zombi - Direct Inject
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Four of Swords
• Queen of Pentacles
• King of Cups
Stability in the Will as applied to Earthly matters is entangled with Emotion and thus, leads to conflict. Nearly a perfect summation of my last few days of work.
