New Music From Pulp!

 

I am waaaay behind on posting new music here. Mr. Brown alerted me to Pulp's new single last week, along with news of their forthcoming first album in... a really long time! More drops on June 6th. Pre-order from Rough Trade HERE.

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NCBD:

Very excited to hit the shop later today. Here's what I'll be bringing home:

Really digging A.J. Lieberman and Mike Henderson's The Hive. The first issue was something I grabbed on a lark, but it was enough to get me to come back for two, and now here I am waiting on issue #3! A street-level crime comic with a very subtle, maybe "Black Mirror-like" Sci-Fi twist.  

I'm going to have a boatload of these Z-News waiting for me in Chicago next time I'm on the South Side long enough to shop at Amazing Fantasy. The cover story here is on Joe Kelly helming the recent re-launch (yes, again) of Amazing Spider-Man with a new number one. I saw that on the shelf last week and almost went for it (there were certainly enough covers and copies), but they didn't get me this time, so it will be cool to read Kelly's plans or whatever this "interview" will be. 

I feel like this book is tri-monthly at this point, and that's okay with me. Take it slow.

Justin Jordan and Maan House's Mine Is A Long Lonesome Grave is now one of my most anticipated books every month! A creepy A.F. supernatural revenge story, I'm really hoping this runs longer than next issue, which is the last I see solicited. I suppose if it doesn't, we'll have a tight little tale easy to push onto others. Always better to leave 'em wanting more than give 'em too much. Still, this could unfold in some pretty crazy ways. I trust Mr. Jordan implicitly, so I'm here for it either way.

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Watch:

I'm not entirely sure how I made it to 2025 without seeing 1994's Brainscan, but I watched the flick for the first time last night and instantly fell in love with it.

With a screenplay written by Andrew Kevin Walker taken from a Brian Owens story, Director John Flynn leaves his 80s Action roots behind and crafts what I can honestly say is the only film I know of that delivers to me the same vibe that Robert Englund's 976-Evil does, and if you read these pages, you know how much I adore that film.

This a 90s film that feels like a natural progression from 80s Sci-Fi Horror; the suburban neighborhood, children who lead a seemingly adult-less existence and do just fine, and an otherworldly entity that singles them out for Horror that feels, at times, theoretically very frightening. I mean, the opening "kill" sees the film's Protagonist Mike (Edward Furlong) commit a savage murder first-person by way of a 'radical new video game.'

If you've read my story "Literal Death", I'm sure you'd think this film burrowed its way into me way back. That, however, is not the case. 

So, of course, after watching Brainscan, I had to follow it with 976-Evil. 

How could I not? Perfect timing, because I missed this one last year during 31 Days of Halloween, so I was overdue.

I don't know what it is about Englund's sole Directorial excursion that I love so much. It captures not an era, but an era as portrayed by Hollywood so perfectly, balanced on the precipice between when Horror and Exploitation were kind of studio-ish (Post-Terminator) because there were still successful, but still malleable, small studios with widespread distribution. The kids in 976-Evil are exacerbated stereotypes of 80s nerds and hoodlums like we see in so many other films (Return of the Living Dead springs immediately to mind), but combined here with Howard Berger's FX and the faux-small town but still recognizably urban environments the Art Director and Set Designers create, there's an etheral tone I've not seen many other places. Except in Brainscan, where Flynn updates the look to early 90s-but-still-oh-so-close-to-the-80s Suburbia, but still retains that 80s Kids in Danger vibe.

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Playlist:

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

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

MadLove - White With Foam

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She 

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Card:

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

• Five of Swords

• Two of Pentacles

• XXI: The World

Routine can be damaging, but it can also help establish a new foundation from which new vantages reveal comprehensive comprehension. 

Or something like that. In other words, stay the course. 

Subcutaneous Phat

Recently, I was back in Chicago for my good friend and Horor Vision cohost Professor John Trafton's Moving Histories Panel at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (CSMS) conference hosted at the Freemont Hotel in downtown Chicago. The panel was on Saturday, so I drove in solo on Friday, and my sister Kim and I met John for pizza and beers at Piece Brewery/Pizzaria. Great food, great beer. 

After dinner, Kim and I took John to one of the few Wickerpark legends that remains from back in the day - Estelle's. The 5:00 AM on the weekend lounge still has great ambience, a killer jukebox, and an all-around air of history to it. In service of my second point, QOTSA-project Desert Sessions track Subcutaneous Phat came on. I couldn't place it at first, but as soon as I did, I knew I'd be digging out my CD copy of Desert Sessions Vol. 9 & 10 upon returning home.

Absolutely killer track!!!

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Watch:

How did I miss that Ari Aster's fourth film, a contemporary Western set during the recent pandemic, is on the horizon? Here's the teaser trailer, the only thing I'll be watching in the run-up to this film's eventual release, which has yet to be announced:

Also, check out this poster. This has to be my favorite film poster in years:

Can't wait for this one to hit theatres. I know Aster's third film, Beau's Not Afraid, did not get the kind of love his first two films, Hereditary and Midsommar, did, but I loved it and, while I'd love to have Aster back in the Horror genre, I'm there for anything the man does at this point.

Read more about this on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Read:

Somehow, I forgot to post about this back when I received it from K for my birthday and promptly read it the next day. Warren Ellis and JH Williams III blew my mind back in 2005 with their six-issue Desolation Jones book (the series continued for two issues beyond this with a new arc artistically helmed by José Villarrubia, but it only went two issues before Warren Ellis' infamous Hard Drive crash that led to the end of most if not all of the series he was writing at the time (Doktor Sleepless, New Universal, Fell, etc). Recently, however, Williams spearheaded the release of a remastered, oversized hardcover, and K gave me a copy for my birthday. It is fucking GLORIOUS!

I had not read this since it was monthly, and although I remembered it being just as good if not better than most of Ellis' work, I'llbedamned if this isn't one of my favorite arcs the man wrote. Maybe it's Williams' art, but the concept and execution are thrilling, kind of a Hellblazer-meets-the-spy-genre-meets-weird-fiction. 

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Playlist:

Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Desert Sessions Vol. 9/10

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

Toast - Clincher

Ghost - Meliora

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Preoccupations - Arrangements

Type O Negative - October Rust

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RIP Peter Steele

 

The problem with starting these posts days ahead of actually posting them is I'm always behind and it often makes it easy to forget import anniversaries. Like this one. 15 fucking years? Unbelievable. Miss you, sir.

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New Music From Ghost!!!

 

More new Ghost! I'm waiting to listen to this and anything else they drop between now and April 25th, when Skeletá releases. Pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

I had a mini Lucio Fulci marathon yesterday that included two films I'd never seen before. First up, I caught the last third or so of The Beyond on Shudder.TV. This one is an old favorite (thanks, Anthony), and it inspired the marathon.

 

Next up, The New York Ripper. I'd caught a few scenes of this here and there over the years but never watched it in its entirety. Truthfully, I had this one on in the background while I edited the latest episode of The Horror Vision, one earbud in, but with how downright mean and sleazy Ripper is, I got the gist, and it was more than enough.

 

Is it just me, or is there an exorbitant number of scenes in this flick of two men walking and talking exposition? Fulci uses that device often, but here it was cranked to eleven. 

 Finally, A Cat in the Brain. Man, this might be the grossest film by the gore master I've seen yet. 

There's a kind of lackadaisical chill to some of the gore, and it did wonders for the creep factor. This was a late-night watch, so I passed out during parts and need to go back to fill in the gaps. Probably. This is not a great flick, but I'd like to sit through it at least once, even if just to see Fulci as the lead.

 

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Read:

Now that Jeff Lemore and Garbriel H. Walta's Phantom Road is back monthly, I took the opportunity to re-read volumes one and two in one sitting, plowing right on through to last week's issue #11. 

This book is up there with Tynion's SIKTC as one of the most readable books to come out since Kirkman's The Walking Dead. Every issue flies by but packs a whole lot of Mystery and Horror in its pages. I love the character development and how it's taking place, and there are just all kinds of threads to pull on and unravel.

Another thing - this book has so much Twin Peaks influence in it! It's not overt, but it's very much decipherable if you're a fan of Lynch and Frost's epic, only we've transported the weirdness from the forests of the Pacific Northwest to the desert roads of middle America. 

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Playlist:

Bedridden - Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs

All Them Witches - Lightning At the Door

Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor

Dreamkid - Daggers

Slow Crush - Aurora

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Yawning Balch - Volume Two

Miles Davis - Birth of the Blue

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Preoccupations - New Material

Preocccupations - Eponymous

Baroness - Stone

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• XI: Justice

• Knight of Cups

• Nine of Swords

What does it say that Crowley turned XI Justice in Lust? Justice is certainly something people lust after in certain situations. My notes from way back talk about primordial forces underlying existence, and while I'd definitely mark Lust as one of those, I can't say my 49 years on Earth have proven to me that Justice is comparable.

Taken here as the first step on a path that advances to the Will of Emotion and culminates with a foundation of Intellect, I'd say the point to today's Pull is to remember to temper with the underlying push/pull of emotions connected to our view of the world with a healthy dose of Intellect. Not everything is as it seems, we know this, but knowing and abiding or using that knowledge is most definitely not the same thing. 

Beedridden's Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs is out now!!!

 

Very excited that Bedridden's debut album, Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs, released today! You can head over to their Bandcamp and snatch up the digital copy for $8 or the cassette for $12! Great band, can't wait to hear more from them!

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Watch:

Although I have very few complaints about the theatrical releasing in Clarksville, I was bummed that all my Chicago friends got a pretty wide rollout of French Canadian directing trio RKSS's (Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell, and François Simard) new film Wake Up. All reports are, this is a great one.

I know nothing about Wake Up. This was completely off my radar until my friend Chris mentioned it to me, and from there, a few others picked up the chant. "See it in the theatre." Unfortunately, neither my failsafe Regal in Nashville nor the Belcourt has it, so I'll be holding out for VOD.

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Read:

Long-time HWA friend David Lucarelli has turned his brilliant 2018 spook show Doctor Zomba into a comic book, Doctor Zomba's Ghostly Tales!

David joined us on Drinking with Comics HERE to talk about the original stage production of Doctor Zomba's back circa 2019. K and I caught the show at that year's Fringe Fest in Hollywood and LOVED it, so I'm psyched to see David turning this into a Horror Anthology comic. Head over to the Kickstarter HERE and take a gander! 

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Playlist:

Radiohead - OK Computer

Lounge Lizards - No Pain For Cakes

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Drug Church - Prude

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#∞

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Afghan Whigs - Black Love

Slow Crush - Aurora

Suburban Living - Always Eyes 

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

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Card:

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

• Seven of Cups

• Ten of Swords

• Page (Princess) of Pentacles

Imagination culminates into prosperity when focused through long-term effort. All good signs when you're getting ready to launch a new book. Not there yet, but close.

Money Mark - Hand in Your Head

From Money Mark's 1998 album Push the Button. One fine little tune to brighten your day. Had this man on my mind since watching that B-Boys doc on Apple, and it's been a while since I revisited this. So good.

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NCBD:

Are those... Sharkticons? Oh man! DWJ and team know exactly how to get me excited before I even hold the book in my hands.

The return of Jeff Lemire & Gabriel H. Walta's Phantom Road! This is long overdue, and I'm dying to re-read the first ten issues and pick right back up where we left off. So many burning questions with this one.

I'll admit, when this book flipped to the second arc last issue and I saw it involved that ventriloquist dummy character from Batman's classic rogues gallery, I was unconvinced. But Watters and Sherman left me completely agog by that issue's closing page, so I'm psyched to be back!

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Watch:

There's really only about 3% of stuff on Netflix I care about, and one of those is Love, Death + Robots, which is returning May 15th for Volume 4. Here's a teaser:

I've watched the first three volumes countless times, but I still somehow have the feeling I have not seen it all. This was a show I used to fall asleep to back in Redondo Beach when I first became enamored with it, so some episodes have a real 2:00 A.M. haze to them. That said, there's something particularly envigorating about viewing Science Fiction from a liminal conscious state, and I'm pretty sure that has added to my high regard for the show.

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Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1

Neverly Brothers - The Dark Side of Everything

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

Sqürl - Third Man Records Session

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• Two of Swords

• Four of Cups

• King of Pentacles

As I've said here before, one of the many things I love about Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot is the imagery he uses is so particular to me, so invested in meaning, I can sometimes just read these based on what I see and not the learned associations of the number/suite/arcana. In this case, I'm hearing loud and clear I should pursue a new musical idea I have. Heard, chef.

Reba Meyer's Solo Music!

Reba Meyers' solo record to follow this, her second single, later this year! Super good news. I love Meyer's work, but Code Orange has slowly drifted into realms that, while I'll continue to give them a chance to come back, are far afield from what I listen to.

Check out Meyer's BandCamp HERE. Also, a short interview with her can be found HERE.

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Watch:

Have not had time to watch much in the last week or so. Three series have been competing for my time and heart: Severance, Yellowjackets Season Three, and a combination of Daredevil: Born Again and a rewatch of the original Daredevil Netflix series, currently nearing the end of the first season. I did, however, have occasion to watch the 2020 Spike Jonze documentary Beastie Boys Story, which I cannot recommend enough, even if you're not a fan. 

The format here is Mike D. and Adrock on stage in front of a live audience, with Spike Jonze controlling images and footage on a movie screen behind them as they talk. The show is an intimate, no-holds-barred look at their history, and I cannot commend Diamond and Horowitz enough for facing some of their uncomfortable moments head-on. Also, the love and admiration on display between these two for each other and their fallen comrade Adam Yauch makes for a beautiful framing device for the group's history. Lots of stuff here I didn't know, and I grew up a pretty big fan in the 90s.

And, of course, I had to follow that up with Fight for Your Right (Revisited), which I hadn't watched since it was released. 

So much fun just spotting all the cameos, and, of course, even though I'm not generally a fan of most of these gentlemen's brand of humor, here, applied to a topic that resonates, it's just a blast.

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Playlist:

Pink Floyd - UmmaGumma

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas

John Carpenter - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Dreamkid - Daggers

Skid Row - Eponymous

Flying Lotus - Spirit Box

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Alegeaeon - The Ossuary Lens

Cibo Mato - Stereotype A

Captain Jack - Pure Electric

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• Ace of Cups

• XIII: Death

• XVIII: The Moon

Everything starts with or includes transformation of late. Big things on the horizon, I think. Lots of conversations in my life at the moment pertaining to work, home and family. This just tells me something needs to change, but it may not be the most obvious thing.