lords. - bleeding out

 

I've been growing increasingly obsessed with lords.' single "Bleeding Out," perhaps because I can find next to nothing about them online. This song has the proverbial "it," even if I can't really explain what that it is. It's a feeling. A lonely, haunted exploration of desolation, doom and despair, but also an infectious, cyclical, creepy energy that keeps it moving and pulls you in. Well, it pulls me in for sure. I wish I could post a Bandcamp or something, but other than a Soundcloud and an Instagram, there's no trail for these guys, which just makes it even creepier in an age of oversaturation and instantaneous communication. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

While in L.A. this past Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting two places I had never been before. The first is Gardena Cinema. This is a family-owned, single-screen theatre at 14948 Crenshaw Blvd, Gardena, CA 90249 that, while I lived here, was a first-run theatre that only played big Hollywood movies. Franchises and the like. They had an all-day Universal Monster-thon and some friends and I had the pleasure of seeing Jack Arnold's Creature From the Black Lagoon in Real D 3D. 

I've loved this flick since I was a child, and it's one of Kirsten's favorites, too, so I've seen it a lot. After seeing it restored in 3D, I can honestly say I feel like I've just seen it for the first time. The restoration and conversion must have been a painstaking but rewarding process, as this just looks so good!

Next up, I finally made my way to Vidiots in Eagle Rock. Part video rental store, part theatre, I'd been wanting to hit this place up since it opened in June of 2023, a little bit less than a year after I moved. I feel like the heavens must have aligned on this trip, because while I would have been willing to go see pretty much anything there, it turns out my visit coincided with a screening of one of my all-time favorite films, Luky McKee's May.

I have no trouble admitting that as the movie began, I almost burst into tears. I love this one so much, and to see it on the big screen after all these years, side by side with some good friends - two of whom had never seen it before - was an experience that will resonate for the remainder of my life. 

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road/The Funhouse

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"/Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D/May

5) The Strangers

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Playlist:

lords. - bleeding out (single)

Drug Church - Prude

Maddie & Kenta Yacht Rock Playlist

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

NIN - I'm Afraid of Americans (single)

David Bowie - I'm Afraid of Americans (single)

David Bowie - The Stars (Are Out Tonight) (single)

Ozzy Osbourne - Tonight (single)

NIN - With Teeth

Faetooth - Labryinthine

Mark Ronson & RAYE - Suzanne (single)

RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime Tandem

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

The Cure - Alone (single)

Drain - ... Is Your Friend (pre-release singles)

The Bronx - American Heartattack (single)

Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)

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Card:

While I'm traveling, I'm using the mini Thoth Deck that Missi gifted me many years ago. Still, I have to offer a reminder that creator Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot has been my day-to-day deck for over a year now (buy HERE), and Grimm's new deck, the Eldritch Lace Tarot, is up for funding right now on Kickstarter HERE.

Just the one card for today, a reminder to hit the ground running on my book as soon as I return to my daily life later today. Traveling back from L.A., I will say, I kept the thread going by writing two of the four days I was gone. Small sessions, but some important groundwork was laid, and I need to continue that today and tomorrow, despite the shit storm that is likely waiting for me 'at the office.'

Revocation - Dystopian Vermin

 

I'm traveling, so I'm not as up-to-date as I'd like. Flew into LAX yesterday and it's been wham-bam since, with no slowing down in sight. Fuck - I'll be 50 in March, and I had to fight ALL my 49-year-old lethargy for this trip. A body at rest tends to stay at rest, and all that. Still, I can't complain - seeing good friends, eating Lee's sandwiches every chance I get, and going to see some solid flicks, even if I might not make it to any Beyondfest screenings while I'm here. Anyway, here's a video for one of my favorite tracks from Revocation's new record, New Gods, New Masters, out last week on Metal Blade. Order the album HERE, and if you get the chance, see these guys live. I saw them back in 2014 on the Summer Slaughter tour and although they were unknown to me at the time, I was a fan by the time their set finished. 

This song is just savage! No other word for it. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

Two nights ago, I had the treat of seeing Tobe Hooper's 1981 Carnival Slasher The Funhouse on the big screen. Regal Theatres is hosting a Horror movie night every night for the duration of October, and I thought it was awesome that they kicked the month off with this underseen gem. 

I remember hearing about this back in the day and it basically being out of print, because it took me quite a few years to track down a fairly cheap copy of the DVD. No idea where that went, and while I'm not sure this is one I'd add to the collection again at this point, I treasured seeing this in a theatre. 

The tally so far:

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road/The Funhouse

2)  Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"/Cabin in the Woods

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Read:

As I mentioned a few weeks back, one of the books I'm reading for my Shadow Play Book Two research project is Richard Ellman's Oscar Wilde.

I'm finding this book very engaging, and what's more, it's kickstarting a lot of interest in the Renaissance, which, admittedly, I know very little about. 

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Playlist:

Wojciech Kilar - Bram Stoker's Dracula OST

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Revocation - Teratogenesis EP

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters

Slow Crush - Thirst

Burial - Untrue

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Boy Harsher - Careless

HEALTH - DISC0=PART II

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Three of Swords

• Knight of Swords

• Five of Pentacles

Disappointment, ambition, hardship or isolation. 

New Music From The Subways!

Holy smokes, has it been a minute since we had some new music from The Subways! I was initially going to post this last Friday, but then I realized it wouldn't debut until Friday afternoon, and I completely forgot about it. Seeing it in my drafts, I became excited all over again. I mean, NEW music from The Subways?!? Sure, this song doesn't herald a new album, just a comp, but STILL! Hearing this band again, I remember how much I love their first album. 

 

That new compilation is called When I'm With You, and you can pre-order it HERE.

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NCBD:

Pretty cool NCBD this week, as I've added a few outliers to my pull. 

I'm not sure I'll be buying Matt Fraction's Batman title in perpetuity, but I definitely had to grab this second issue just for the way the cover complements issue #1. Also, I did really dig that first issue, so who knows? Dan Watters' Dark Patterns is ending soon, and I've kind of grown attached to having a monthly bat-book. We'll see. 

I don't know much about Spider-Man Noir, but I dug the character in Across the Spider-Verse, and I love the design and concept, so I'm giving this a shot. Also, Erik Larsen returns to a derivation of the character that made him famous, so that feels like something I want to be here for. 

It just dawned on me now that we're six issues from SIKTC #50. I can feel this title building toward something, as it has gone backward into the past to propel us into the future. I don't know if I've said it here before, but I've carried a distinct idea for a while now that this book isn't going to go past 75 issues, so we may be closing in on a whole new world here. 

Like Spider-Man Noir, I don't know a helluva lot about Zatana, although I've probably read a skosh more with her than our Cage-voiced web-head up there. How could I not buy a one-shot with this title on the first day of Halloween? 

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Watch:

Puppet Combo made a movie!

Okay, yeah, this isn't going to win any awards. It also might ultimately prove a bit of a chore to get through. But hit damn if I'm not psyched to A) Support Puppet Combo's first film and, B) see some of their game imagery come to life on the big screen. If this goes well... imagine a Nun Massacre film? 

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Playlist:

NIN - The Downward Spiral

David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails - Back in Anger 1995

David Bowie - No Plan EP

NIN - The Fragile (Disc 1)

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Mitch & Ira Yuspeh - Seven Doors of Death OST

At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command

Slow Dive - Thirst

Fabio Frizzi - The Beyond OST

lords. - Bleeding Out (single)

lords. - Singles playlist

Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Four of Cups

• II: High Priestess

• Six of Cups

There's that apathy again. So weird how certain cards in this deck just stick to me. I've never had this with any other deck. So we're looking at that disinterest I'm showing the digital world, and we see it undercut by cloudy logic; am I missing something? Am I mixing nostalgia with reason? 

Joy Division - Atmosphere

I've officially felt the change to my Autumnal self, and as such, Joy Division has been creeping into my daily listening more and more. In honor of that, I thought it pertinent to start the week with a favorite. 

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Watch:

In preparation for the first part of Stranger Things' final season arriving in November, K and I began rewatching the series from the very beginning. With all the delays and general negative cultural cache that's accumulated around this one, I'd forgotten just how goddamn awesome ST actually is. 

In particular, I'd forgotten that they tie Brennan's experiments in Hawins to Project MK Ultra, a topic that has fascinated me for well over twenty years at this point. It's nice to dip back into this and see it holds up to the way I remember it - pretty much perfect. 

For me, a lot of that negative cultural connotation comes from how long this whole thing has gone on. I remember watching Season Four, which I loved, back in the Spring of 2022 and seeing a lot of publicity that the next season would be out the following year. The premiere of Season Five on November 26 will be 3.5 years since Season Four premiered. That just seems crazy to me. So much momentum built up and dissipated, and for what? I'd wager that Netflix had the Duffer Bros. work up a spin-off in the interim, something that could be advertised when the show finally ends with its finale this coming New Year's. That's fine, but man, I don't know - if this show wasn't so damn good, I would have jumped off a long time ago.

But as I stated above, it is that good, so I'll just swallow that annoyance and get on with stoking my fan embers in the two months I have left before November 26th.

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Playlist:

Joy Division - Closer

David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails - Back in Anger 1995

David Bowie - Scary Monsters

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters

Mastodon & Lamb of God - Floods of Triton (single)

Death - Individual Thought Patterns

Pasco 637 - Cuando Acecha la Maldad (single)

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

The Black Queen - Infinite Games

lords. - bleeding out

lords. - single playlist

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself

Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood (single)

David Bowie - Outside

Radiohead - Kid A

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

Annihilator - Never, Neverland

Skid Row - Slave to the Grind

Deftones - private music

The Body - All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood

Intensive Care & The Body - Was I Good Enough?

Netherlands - Vapors

Soundgarden - Bad Motorfinger

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Four of Cups

• Seven of Swords

• Knight of Cups

Loss of engagement or apathy as a way to trick my mind out of the rut it's been in the last month or so. I'm not talking about a debilitating rut; I'm getting a lot of outlining accomplished on the Shadow Play sequel, but I've been preoccupied with the internet and my phone in general and that always leaves me feeling like shit. Digital hangover. So I've convinced myself I don't care about those connections anymore, and it's worked wonders. With the way now cleared, I simply have to follow where my nature takes me. Which is, of course, my own personal aesthetic, expressed best through writing. 

Russian Circles - Conduit

Eastside Bowl in Nashville is now easily my favorite venue near me. I was expecting Young Widows and Russian Circles to play on the tiny stage in the room off to the left when you walk in the door, the place where the Twin Peaks Day/David Lynch tribute was held back in February. And while that would have been nuts, instead I learned that Eastside Bowl is considerably larger than I thought. We were directed to the far end of the bowling alley, where an arrow pointing left denoted "Venue." One long, gently sloping, carpeted corridor later, we were standing before a stage in a room that reminded me a lot of a smaller Bottom Lounge. Needless to say, the show was fantastic; Young Widows KILLED it, and Russian Circles... wow. I'm not sure how I slept on these guys so long. I had a few tracks on a mix CD back in the early to mid-2000s, but that's it. Needless to say, I'm a fan now. Here's a favorite track off their most recent record Gnosis that sounded massive live in that room.

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Watch:

Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride received a trailer a few days ago. 

As is my habit of late, I only watched about twenty seconds of this before I shut this off. Don't want to risk overhype or overexposure, both very real threats to a pure theatrical experience in 2025. I can say, I've liked Maggie since Donnie Darko, and I'm super happy to see her in the Director's chair for this. 

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Read:

When I declared the remainder of my non-comic book reading for 2025, I knew there'd be a few minor exceptions. One of those came up the other day, when in preparation for an upcoming episode of The Horror Vision: Elements of Horror on The Company of Wolves, I picked up the beautiful 75th anniversary edition of Angela Carter's collection, The Bloody Chamber, which contains the story Carter and Director Neil Jordan adapted for the 1984 film.

First, Alex Konahin's cover art is magnificent. Second, I feel like I've just uncovered a missing link between old-school folk horror literature, such as Arthur Machen, and 80s authors like Robert Dunbar. I'm limiting myself to the pertinent story for the time being, but I can't wait to rip into more in a few months. 

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Playlist:

Deftones - private music

The Soft Moon - Criminal 

Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop OST

Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum

The Damage Manual - Special Edition

Russian Circles - Gnosis

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Pelican - Flickering Resonance

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Four of Pentacles

• Ace of Swords

• Page of Wands

Stability seems to waver around me of late, and yeah, that feels about right. I'm constantly fighting back dark shit in my head about the future - my future, the world's future, et al. It definitely feels like a recent breakthrough of Will has me in a slightly better place than I was in a week ago, and the Page of Wands seems to suggest this isn't a fluke but a new beginning awash in inspiration. We'll see... 

September 25, 1980

John Bonham died 45 years ago today.

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Young Widows - Call Bullshit

My friend Chris is in town and we're heading to Nashville's Eastside Bowl tonight to see Young Widows and Russian Circles. Here's a track from the Widows' new album, Power Sucker, which is currently on my best of list for the year. 

You can check out more tour dates and merch for Young Widows on their Bandcamp HERE.

Also, Russian Circles' Bandcamp can be found HERE.

I'm relatively new to Russian Circles, but Young Widows I've been digging on since back when their debut Settle Down City landed in my mailbox. 

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NCBD:

I'm off today so I'll be heading into Rick's earlier than usual to pick up my books. Here's what's coming home with me for NCBD, September 24, 2025:

One issue remains after this month's Void Rivals before we are catapulted into the eagerly anticipated Quintesson War. Crossovers and Events are generally not my thing, but being that the entire Energon Universe is kind of one big crossover, I'm hoping Kirkman and company show the big two how to do these correctly. I've expressed my love of the Quintessons here before, so to have them up front for six issues is going to (hopefully) be a dream come true.

Now one of my most anticipated books each month, Zander Cannon's Sleep continues to keep me hanging on every issue. 

I was just talking about this on a recent episode of The Horror Vision, so I'm overjoyed to see the second chapter of James Stokoe's Orphan and the Five Beasts finally hitting the stands. The art in Stokoe's pages must take an insane amount of time, so I'll be reading this one slowly, with a keen eye on all the details that make Stokoe's work so rewarding. 

I'm behind on Condon and Alan Love's News From the Fall Out, but the first issue left quite the impression, so I'm looking forward to catching up this week and getting current. 

Regarding this cover: As a life-long fan of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with virtually no good adaptations of the source material or even just jaunts with the Headless Horseman, you have my attention, Mr. Spears. Please - the floor is yours. 

As I mentioned in Monday's "Card" section of this page, I'm still putting off my Lazarus reread that is meant to be a welcome refresher before jumping into this final Lazarus series. This series just hits too close to home these days. 

I started buying this Death of the Silver Surfer series for the covers, but the story is turning out to be pretty good, even if we all know there are no real stakes here. Still, even though I don't have much interest in most of what Marvel is doing at the moment, I always keep my eye out for mini-series, as there have been quite a few over the last five years or so that I really liked. The Death of Doctor Strange was incredibly good, and while this isn't that, it's keeping me hanging on from issue to issue. 

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Watch:

Last Saturday night I sat down and watched Brandon Christensen's latest flick, Night of the Reaper. Here's a trailer that won't spoil anything:

This one is a bit of style over substance, but not intentionally so, and it's pretty fun. That said, the "twist" did not feel earned at all, and I'm still a little bit confused as to whether the logistics actually work. Still, this would make a fun Friday night beer bottle flick for sure. 

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Playlist:

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Hellbender - Hellbender OST

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Young Widows - Settle Down City

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Drug Church - Prude

Led Zeppelin - Live EP

Roy Ayers - Ubiquity

Frank Black and the Catholics - One More Road for the Hit

Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail

Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse

Joy Division - Still

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Also, if you head over to Grimm's Kickstarter HERE you'll see his upcoming The Eldritch Lace Tarot Deck, you can hit the "notify upon launch" button and then you can get on this seriously unbelievably awesome deck. 

• Queen of Cups

• Queen of Pentacles

• Nine of Swords

An abundance of feminine energy is never a bad thing; Coupled with the Nine of Swords, I take this as a "pay attention to what the women in your life are saying" connotation.