I had zero idea such a thing as this existed until a few minutes ago. I can tell by the set that this is during Dave's CBS years, of which I've only ever seen isolated clips. But to think that a theatre full of folks went in to see the Letterman show in 1998 and were treated to a fully reunited Black Sabbath - yes, that's Bill Ward playing the drums! - is just wonderful!
I love this clip because you can see how Ozzy starts the performance with a healthy dose of reserve, probably not having played a television show with his old Birmingham mates since 1978's Top of the Pops, and then Dave's crowd begins to react to his boisterous prompts, he really starts to come alive. That's my big takeaway from having seen Ozzy live four or five times: he was the consummate showman. Makes sense when you consider he performed up until two weeks before his death.
People talk about how Ozzy never really wrote anything and that somehow makes him lesser, however, anyone who saw this man live knows he is a voice and a performer above all things.
Probably my second favorite Ozzy track, "Shot in the Dark" is the final track on 1986's The Ultimate Sin. I knew this song from its inception as a single, and it wasn't until the early 90s that I heard the entire album from which it hails. At that time, I wasn't a fan of the album, just the song, which seemed like a moody anomaly on an otherwise, at-first-glance collection of so-so 80s hard rock (It didn't help that my high school girlfriend and her two older sisters played Ozzy non-stop for the three years we dated. Forced familiarity can indeed breed contempt, a lesson we could have applied to our relationship, as well).
Maybe ten years ago or so, I gave The Ultimate Spin another chance, and found that, not only did I remember a lot of the tracks, but I remembered them kindly. Excitedly, even. Since then, this has become a go-to Ozzy record for me. As much as I love and respect the man, I don't gel with a lot of his solo work. Riding high off No More Tears, I was ready to embrace Ozzmosis when it landed in 1995, but the lead single, "Perry Mason," just seemed like such a ridiculous song. Like Ozzy had somehow gone all the way around the bend into self-parody. The album didn't sit much better with me, and that was the last of his solo work I paid attention to until Mr. Brown got me into 2020's Ordinary Man circa 2021. Producer Andrew Watt ended up being the best thing to happen to the Ozzman in decades, as I'd rank Ordinary Man and Patient No. 9 as instant classics. Both records are of a caliber that, while the early stuff is still untouchable, hold their own.
I've made it my mission to comb through his catalogue and see if I missed anything.
NCBD:
Great pull list this week. Let's go!
Void Rivals has been picking up steam as we move toward the Quintesson War's start in upcoming issue 25. We have an army of Skuxxoids, Hot Rod and Springer, the Quintessons, Zerta, and Cobra La. That's A LOT of tension points for a story, and somehow, Kirkman balances them all perfectly, letting out little bits of steam here and there so we know that in a couple of issues, things are going to go OFF!
Zander Cannon's Sleep is the, ah, sleeper hit of 2025. Seriously, this book is fantastic! When I first picked up issue one, I thought the art would be a tonal aberration I wouldn't be able to get over. Turns out, it's the exact opposite. Cannon's style belies a dark underbelly that froths with blood and bad things.
Minor Arcana quickly proved itself as another burgeoning Jeff Lemire masterpiece, a la Fishflies. This time, however, there's a long run and a more involved plot. The sleepy seaside small town setting and exploration of a failed fortune teller are masks for something bigger and much more malevolent, and the reveals come slow and steady, once again showcasing the deep-seated influence of David Lynch in this man's storytelling.
Almost as if the Universe sent this cover to pay homage to Ozzy's passing. I have no idea what this book is about, but when I saw the title/cover combo, I knew I'd have to track it down.
James Tynion & Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses continues barreling along its destructive path and you're damn straight I'll once again have a front row seat! I have a feeling this book is going to really surprise us along the way. Not everything is as straightforward as it seems.
Watch:
For reasons I simply cannot fathom, about two years ago I walked away from HBOs Doom Patrol series and never came back. This wasn't intentional; I'm not really sure how I got like this, but I tend to leave shows - even shows I adore - hanging. Something kicked in again last week, and I rewatched the entire second season and am now perched atop the first episode of Season Three, which is unfamiliar ground for me.
I can't stress how much I love this show. It's absurd, moving, and outright bat shit. The look of it is among my favorite looks to any show or film - the lighting is soft, dark, but still colorful. The set design is symmetrical, cohesive and downright creepy A.F., when it needs to be. And the original, Dada-esque undertones Grant Morrison so lovingly wove through his run on the book in the 80s are always ever-present. These elements would be disparate and jarring in the hands of most, but this show blends them all perfectly.
Playlist:
Deee-Lite - Dewdrops in the Garden
Deee-Lite - World Clique
Primus - Antipop
Hot Stove Jimmy - It's a System...
Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid
Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes
Deadfly Buchowski - Russian Doll E.P.
Zombi - 2020
Zombi - Direct Inject
Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason (single)
Ozzy Osbourne - Down to Earth
Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• Two of Cups
• Four of Wands
Creative emotional support is needed to reclaim a regular sense of balance, i.e. in this case, duty. I remain in a non-writing paradigm. I did begin re-reading Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie, a much-needed and until now shirked necessity for, you know, working on the sequel. That's a major step for me, but I need to get back to a regular routine and it just seems to be drifting further and further away. A day stolen here or there just doesn't amount to much, and I think the cards are telling me that I need to ask K for help.
Man, 2025 can suck a big bag O' clown peen. I mean, what the fuck? As per my tradition, thus begins Ozzy Week, where I'll post and celebrate the Demon Prince of Rock!!!
"No More Tears" is easily my favorite track and album from Ozzy's solo career, which is a pretty uneven solo career. Of course, the same can be said of all post-original line-up members of Black Sabbath once they tried to make it on their own.
The 80s were a tumultuous time for Rock Gods - too much blow and a frenzy of one-upmanship, and I'm sure they hardly knew which way was up. But this track - man, I remember the night I first heard this on 103.5 The BLAZE, Chicago's pre-Grunge rock radio station. I remember the DJ saying, "Here's the new track from Ozzy Osbourne," and I remember the bass grabbed me instantly.
Of course, bassist Mike Inez would go on to Alice in Chains greatness, and guitarist Zakk Wylde would go on to... wear a kilt. But on September 17, 1991, Ozzy released what I consider his crowning achievement, and the entire album ROCKS.
Can it be considered a 'cover' if there are members from the original band who wrote song performing in the band covering it? Probably. I'll say this - I am extremely attached to every song on The Thirsty Crows' Handman's Noose; however, this is fantastic!
Read:
I finally had a chance over the weekend to sit down and read Rebekah and David Ian McKendry's Barstow.
Four tight issues that tell a weird A.F. story that brings to mind Jeff Lemire and Gabriel H. Walta's Phantom Road and, I think, Greydon Clark's The Return. Barstow takes place in the desert, and if you've spent any time eating hallucinogens in Joshua Tree or an equivalent location, this will resonate. If you haven't, this is still a damn good time, with a mix of Body Horror, Satan Horror and a skosh of procedural thrown in to boot.
Watch:
Ari Aster's Eddington is probably not my favorite film of the year - its unflinching approach to America 2020 dovetails with the country we live in five years later. It doesn't pick at the low-hanging fruit by blaming politicians. Instead, it blames US.
As with Aster's previous film, Beau is Afraid, there is a lot of humor here. It's dark and subtle and twisted, though, and honestly, my uproarious laughter was, at one point during our showtime, misinterpreted by a fellow audience member. There could have been trouble, but instead, I think the misinterpreter realized his mistake as he adjusted to the movie's voice, and by the end of the film, he was laughing just as loud as I was.
I will say, I was expecting something approaching Civil War's "reasons to hate humanity" vibe, and instead, Aster pokes a kind of almost good-natured fun at just how stupid our species is.
I became excited when I saw that a new NIN track dropped yesterday. Alas, from what I see, this does not arrive ahead of an album, but the soundtrack for Tron: Not This Again. With NIN helming it, the OST will likely be solid, but it will likely lean into instrumentals. As much as I dig Ross and Reznor's ambient/score music, I was hoping for a full-on, proper NIN album. We'll see.
Watch:
Well, what the hell do you know? Stranger Things season 5 finally gets a teaser?
The wait on this one has been ludicrous to say the very least. That said, I have faith the Duffer Brothers will stick the landing and possibly propel the cast into a Golden Girls-esque sitcom as a sort of postscript.
I can't stress enough, A) How much I loved the previous season, and B) how much damage I think postponing this final season has done the show overall. You can't drag stories like this out this long and expect the material not to suffer.
Read:
A few weeks ago, my good friend Chris Saunders clued me in on a series of novels written by Matt Dinniman called Dungeon Crawler Carl. This is a series with six books already released, so that's usually a pretty good excuse for me to pass (Friends have been asking me to read Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books for nearly 20 years, but even back then, there were too many of them; there's just too much shit to read!)
Here's the solicitation:
"You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.
Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show."
The thing that drew me in was how much Douglas Adams I sensed as Chris described it to me. The aliens show up to drain and destroy Earth for blatantly corporate reasons, and use the "game show" as an industry unto itself. So far, I definitely see the Adams influence, but also, Dinniman is a fantastic writer whose prose moves swiftly without forsaking his characters. An extremly enjoyable reading experience.
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Four of Wands
• Eight of Swords
• Ten of Wands
Completion. Interference and thwarted Will.
Completion is blocked by our own lacklustre willpower to actually focus. Interference is the enemy of all success, i.e. my waivering attention span of late is severly hampering my work.
From the LONG-AWAITED album Private Music, out August 22nd. Order HERE. Easily one of my most anticipated albums of the last five years, I'm absolutely stoked we're getting this next month. I cannot wait to put on headphones, smoke some pot (increasingly rare) and listen to this record from start to finish.
NCBD:
HUGE haul today. Let's dive in:
Oni's resurrection of EC comics continues to evolve. No sooner did Epitaphs From the Abyss end, than the the Grave Digger has passed the proverbial Horror mic to his cohort, The Tormentor, for the new series Catacomb of Torment.
New Z News! I still have barely scratched the surface of the backlog of issues I picked up in Chicago last month, but good to no it's still going.
Has this series had the best covers of 2025? Maybe. I'm still loving that this is bi-monthly and wondering how we lucked into that? Reminds me of the old 80s Turtles, when it would come out bi-monthly or... maybe later. Either way, it's been very cool to see Jason Aaron come on board with the brothers completely pulled apart and slowly... oh so slowly... put them back together.
Oh man. Crisis time - Phantom Road's current arc, The Horror Men, ends next issue and the solicitations on League of Comic Book Geeks ends there, so that means, with Lemire having all the irons in the fire he does, this series is about to go back on hiatus.
One of my most anticipated books when it's dropping, it's hard to imagine going another couple of months without Phantom Road. But I guess we do what we have to do.
I have been waiting for Imperial issue 2 for what feels like months! I loved the first issue, and cannot wait to jump back in, especially with Hulk's proclamation of "War" at the end of the first issue!
This whole "Baroness as a Joe" scenario continues despite the hope last issue's cover instilled in me. Oh well, I'll just shut my mouth because at this point, there's probably no way I'm not going to continue this series. The one silver lining is the burgeoning friendship between Clutch and Hound. LOVE that development A LOT! Hear Mike Shin and I talk about this on the new episode of Drinking with Comics, HERE.
\Speaking of the latest episode of Drinking with Comics, I convinced my cohost, Mike Shin, to read Ben Winters and Leomacs' Philip K. Dick amalgamation, Benjamin, and he loved it! What's not to love? PKD lived an absolutely fascinating life, and, in retrospect, it blows my mind that it took this long for someone to use that life as fodder for a fictional story! Issue two drops tomorrow, and I cannot wait!!!
Two episodes from the finale and I have to say, Ian Carpenter and Aaron Martin's Hell Motel (i.e. Slasher, season six) might just be the Horror Event of 2025! Every episode has been fantastic, but this week's? Chef's fucking kiss!
This show is so expertly plotted. A perfectly maddening Whodunit? combined with all the beautifully brutal flourishes Slasher is known for, the combination just works so goddamn well! Also, while I gave props to Martin and Carpenter up front as the creators, lest it not be forgotten that the inimitable Adam MacDonald directed all of these nasty little fuckers.
Playlist:
Ty Segall - Possession
Deftones - White Pony
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Deftones - Eponymous
dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles
Drug Church - Prude
Hangman's Chair - Saddiction
YUNGBLUD - Idols
Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (Vol. 1)
Willie Nelson - Oh What a Beautiful World Songs of Rodney Crowell
Reggie Watts - Fuck Shit Stack (single)
Jogger - Nephicide (single)
Mi Loco Tango - Rocco and His Brothers (single)
Abby Sage - Smoke Break (single)
Abby Sage - The Rot
Crystal Castles - II
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Nine of Swords
• IX: The Hermit
• Nine of Wands
Two nines? Not sure this has occurred for me before. Climax and accomplishment? That combined with the Hermit actually lead me to believe this is a direct acknowledgement by the cosmos (ie my inner self) that I've earned the break I've taken, through the accomplishment of finishing my book and the culmination of Sweetie's existence. But it's almost time to really tune back in,.
My good friend and former Thirsty Crow Chris Saunders' new group, Wake the Devil, released another single last week, the group's first foray into Country.
It's fantastic.
We listened to this on repeat last Thursday while driving Sweetie to what we were pretty sure was going to be her final Vet visit, and in that twenty or so minutes, I feel in love with this track and it simultaneously burned itself into my DNA for all time.
I cannot wait for a proper release from these guys.
Play:
Thanks to the mighty Bloody Disgusting for the heads up on this GROGEOUS Horror game coming to Switch on the 24th of July. I'd not heard of this, but SOMA is definitely now on my list:
I need to make some time coming up to play some of the games I still have lingering in half-completed states. I basically sat around the house all weekend mourning and didn't lift a thumb to make any progress on Inside, or Blasphemous, or Call of Cthulhu, or any of the Puppet Combo games - although those I honestly don't care about winning at all, as they are all about the atmosphere. That's the thing, though, and it's not a bad thing - I'd always rather read, or write, or watch a flick than play a video game. I can the spurts of interest and commitment where I find them.
Read:
I finished Timothy James' Like • Comment • Survive so quickly, I forgot to post about it here.
Upon starting Like Comment Survive, I was initially taken aback by the found footage formatting of the prose and feared this would infringe on my reading experience. NOT TRUE! Holy cow - the formatting sucked me right in.
James' characters are very well-developed, and the scenario he sets up instantly intriguing. I read this over the course of three days, winnowing out spare time from a busy schedule just to creep a few more pages in here and there. One of the most immersive reads I've had in a while.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST
Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST
The Flaming Lips - Hit To Death in the Future Head
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Three of Cups
• Six of Cups
• Nine of Pentacles
The overflowing emotion of the first two cards I get. This has been a mourning weekend. I'm not sure where the Nine of Pentacles fits in, but maybe it's enough to know I will be able to temper my emotions with the daily grind this week. I certainly was barely capable of tempering them with anything other than Sierra Nevada and movies over the last few days.
