Johnny Jewel - Windswept

Buy of the goddamn century folks! Over at Italians Do It Better's Big Cartel Johnny Jewel has an album's worth of Twin Peaks related music up for download for $1.00.

One Dollar!

I snatched it earlier and along with that Trouble 45 it has made the wait between last week's episode five of Twin Peaks and this coming Sunday's somewhat more bearable.

Somewhat.

Here's one of the tracks, The Flame.

Trouble - Snake Eyes

Did you watch Twin Peaks: The Return episode #5 Sunday night? If you did you saw the creepy ass scene that introduced a scummy new lunatic the credits informed us was Richard Horne. This was the show-stopping wham-bang number that played through it with Trouble on the stage at the Roadhouse. Trouble - featuring long time David Lynch musical/audio collaborator Dean Hurley - has a bandcamp here where you can buy this and another track.

Here's a quote from the site that I believe perfectly encapsulates the vibe of the music Lynch often peppers his fictional drinking holes with:

"Snakes Eyes effectively harkens back to a time when noir R&B was the de-facto soundtrack to hard liquor violence."

Now if that's not poetry I don't know what is. I'd like for "Hard Liquor Violence to henceforth be know as a genre.

Evolution of the Arm - Twin Peaks: The Return Episode #5

Lighting mishap. Learning as I go. There's a lot to talk about in Episode 5 so let's get to it!!!

Evolution of the Arm: A Twin Peaks Discussion (Ep. 3 & 4)

Twin Peaks: The Return episodes #3 and 4 dropped for Showtime subscribers last night (as opposed to those of us viewing on the app who received all four last week). Now that everyone is caught up we can all suffer together week by week waiting for more. Which I think is a GOOD thing. I feel as though Lynch and Frost choosing to adhere to the old, an-episode-a-week schedule instead of the more prevalent "binge" itinerary (with this first batch being something of an initial compromise to hook folks) is perfect for the show and seems very much Lynch; as the artist it is his right to control the dissemination of his work - remember that initial Mulholland Drive DVD that had no chapter stops?

I LOVED that.

Having gotten used to devouring shows in single, protracted bites I feel like having to wait for every episode might act as something of an inoculation against the binge aesthetic. This is good. A couple of years ago I binged a large part of Breaking Bad in order to help a friend catch up for the finale. I'd already watched most of the show as it was released, and in seeing it again in rapid succession I realized what an unbelievably different experience it was seeing Walt's story in marathon stretches, how I perceived the characters - especially Walt's - in a very different light. Since that watch I've been wanting to change my viewing paradigm for visual, narrative fiction but, well, it's pretty freaking tough when most of what I see is in binge-friendly formats like Netflix, Hulu and DVD. Fargo would have been perfect... but I still ended up doing two a night most nights, three in one case. Twin Peaks will be a good exercise in increasing my ability to 'wait'.

The National - The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness

Brown sent me the link to this new track by The National a week or so ago but I'm just getting around to it today. It's hard to process it completely without the context of the entire album, which is titled Sleep Well Beast and available for pre-order here. I'm still fairly new to The National; I fell in love with High Violet about three years ago and since they've been one of those bands I hold my rabid esteem for the first album I love by them against everything else they've done. As usual once I find I need another sequence of songs I'll fall for another record, it's already happening a but with The Boxer. I'm hoping by the time this come out I'll be full hilt into it.

Dead Cross - Now with Mike Patton

Now please.

No? Okay, I will pre-order here. If you're a Patton fan, or a Lombardo fan, or a good music fan, you should too.

Evolution of the Arm: A Twin Peaks Discussion (Ep. 1 & 2)

My new show that will discuss The Return of Twin Peaks week by week. First episode is limited to Twin Peaks: The Return episodes 1 and 2! If you dig and have any theories to contribute please leave them in the comments on the youtube page. Let's start a discussion!!!

Presented by Drinking with Comics.

Fell on Black Days Indeed...

3:20 AM Thursday, May 18, 2017: I wake up sweating as the last of this damnable sickness that has stopped up K and my lives for the last week or so eeks its way from my pores. Unsure if it's near my alarm time I check my phone and see a message from Seth. I click it and read:

I find it hard to fall asleep again after this but eventually I do. This isn't world shattering like Bowie, but it's deeply terrible. And despite the sleep interruption I'm glad this is how I find out; just like when my friend Tori messaged me "David Bowie Died" early in the morning almost a year and a half ago now, seeing news of this magnitude while my brain is still halfway stuck in The Dreaming is a shock that helps cement the event as historical, i.e. I'll always remember where I was. All that said, the way in which I process this news is far more complex than I would have anticipated.

During their initial run Soundgarden was one of my favorite bands. This favor carried on well after their dissolution and although the feelings aren't quite as strong these days I wouldn't say they've waned so much as learned to share. They were one of four bands that Jake - my best friend in my late teens/early twenties - and I shared passionate attachment to the way late teens/early twenties friends often do. And there were layers to our love of these bands, Soundgarden in particular as it wasn't just Cornell as a frontman. They - along with these other bands* - were of the few where I learned to see how ever member of a group could bring something to the table to help construct such a staggering whole (for an example of this play the album version of Fourth of July really loud or on headphones). But Chris Cornell's voice - it defied description. I always 'got' why some people hated it, the sometimes grating, shrill ferocity of his attack. I loved it. Jesus Christ Pose remains a favorite and it's not annoyance I feel when Cornell hits those blistering high notes, it's a sense of joy as reality shreds around me.

I loved Badmotorfinger from the jump, managed to scoop it up in the original, limited release as a double disc with SOMMS, the re-release of which I was thrilled to pick up on vinyl during last November's Record Store Day. Their cover of Sabbath's Into the Void was arguably what also kickstarted my love of Sabbath, and as Jake and I fell into both bands we had a theory between us that SG was somehow the reincarnation of Sabbath in its perfect, original era. Sure other bands imitated the progenitors of metal, but SG didn't. They were of like-minds, the influence not so much blatant as inferred. And there were moments when Kim Thayil seemed to bleed Sabbath Volume 4 and Master of Reality through the pores on his fingertips...



I was a bit hesitant on Super Unknown at first. I still don't really care too much for Spoon Man, and Black Hole Sun took me years for me to come around to recognizing it for the odd, unsettling single that it is. But for years after its release I avoided the album; at the time I was young and probably just upset that all the jocks were suddenly into the same obscure band that I was. Ah youth and it's folly. Jake turned me around though, and he did so by drilling the rest of the album into my head, specifically Mailman, Limo Wreck, Fourth of July, Fresh Tendrils and Like Suicide. From there I really fell into the songs and production on Super Unknown hard; it was the first record I wanted to grab off my shelf this morning when I heard the news and goddamn the one of two people who stole it from me - it was Jake's copy that he gave to me shortly before he died on September 22nd, 1998. I've been hesitant to rebuy it since; Tommy wrote an excellent piece on the record last year for a Joup Friday Album and that almost sent it to my amazon cart but I hesitated, as if there was any chance in hell I'd be able to drive out to Joshua Tree and find my copy in a thrift store, where it most likely ended up after all the dust settled. Ravenous for it this morning I arrived at work and begrudgingly bought it from the iTunes store, 15 tracks of ones and zeros instead of a beautiful tactile fossil I'd touched and played and, honestly, snorted coke off of once or twice. Memories...



When Down on the Upside came out Jake and I had already been anticipating it for some time. He bought it first, on cassette, and I remember we smoked up and put it on and had a weird, 'umm, huh.' reaction to it. This nonplussed, sinking feeling lasted for a week or two, mostly because that first listen freaked us out so much we avoided the record. Then Jake took it on a fishing trip with his estranged father and returned a weekend later exclaiming its brilliance. He'd spent each night of the trip digesting the album through his headphones. This was the first time I figured out that sometimes you had to work for something great; sometimes passive listening lead to breakthroughs and sometimes it's one song that is the key to opening the rest of an album, like a flower. Again we smoked and sat down and he started the album at the beginning of the second side, with Apple Bite transitioning directly into the cyberpunk insanity of Never the Machine Forever. And from there I got it. I consumed the second side of Down on the Upside repeatedly and that eventually opened the first, more polished and 'accessible' side. For years it was my favorite SG album, might still be. Jake had a thing about lyrics; he would often latch onto the most bizarre and literary, or read interpretations into phrases that I would never have seen. Down's penultimate track, An Unkind has one I still think about on a regular basis.

"We lack the Moses, to look a Saint in the eyes." 

And then Soundgarden broke up. I tried to like Chris Cornell's post-SG work but I just could not get into most of it. I loved "Seasons", his solo track on the Singles Soundtrack, but each of his subsequent three solo albums left me cold, as did his work in audioslave. That one's definitely not his fault; I'm not a RATM fan and the idea that those three meatheads basically just did exactly what they did with Dela Rocha at the helm behind a voice as amazing as Chris Cornell's... fucking travesty mate. The track used in Michael Mann's brilliant film Collateral is an exception, but otherwise I can't turn to any of this stuff to celebrate Cornell's life now because in my opinion it is indicative of the terribly sad fact that as an artist Cornell always seemed to shoot himself in the foot. A tragedy when he was as talented as he was and when he had already had such a great vehicle for that talent in his life. Soundgarden's break-up felt like they were frustrated and upset with their fans, with the industry and with themselves. They didn't see the forest for the trees. I once read Cornell refer to them as "Just a metal band" in a way that suggested it was Soundgarden holding him back. I've never understood that - from a fan's perspective they had continually evolved over the course of their career. That was what that whole A side of Down on the Upside was about, an evolution from a Sabbath to a Zeppelin, while the B side was darker and stranger than almost anything they'd done before (except maybe No Wrong No Right or 665). They could have done and been anything, could have made whatever music they wanted as they continued to evolve. But they felt expectations held them back. Maybe they were right; were their album sales tanking? Was A & M unhappy and manipulating them? As a band they were big enough that it didn't matter, they could have been the first Zeppelin of the new age of post-industry. Instead they all kind of disappeared and Cornell went on to search for himself publicly - NEVER a good thing. By the time that Timbaland produced monstrosity hit the shelves I was done. My ex-wife loved that record, but within an instant of hearing it my only reaction was, "Well, if this fails we'll have a Soundgarden reunion in short order."

And we did. And they gave us King Animal, which is okay, but in my opinion not worthy of their legacy. Who knows, maybe I just haven't given it the time to 'blossom' like I did with Down, but I don't think so. And their exorbitant pricing of live shows since reuniting has driven a 'Fuck You' wedge between the band and I so that I don't really want to give it a chance and I never got to see them live and honestly, do not regret NOT remedying that with the reunion at all.

All that said, here's footage of their last song, the last song of Cornell's life, last night at the Fox Theater in Detroit, MI. When I heard it was Zeppelin's In My Time of Dying I got chills.



Finally, whatever the reason for his death, this was the song that I wanted to hear immediately upon learning of Chris Cornell's death. May he rest in peace and know that he changed many, many peoples lives with his music. He certainly changed mine and Jake's.



............

* The others were Ozzy-era Sabbath, Type O Negative and Cypress Hill.

Rick and Morty Meet a Face Hugger

Pretty cool viral marketing. I dig Rick and Morty - not quite enough to really keep up with it, but when I can sit down and knock a back watching a deranged version of Doc Brown and Marty from some of my favorite childhood movies have adventures in an amusement park inside a hobo, well, that's pretty special.

Also, Meeseeks are amazing.

NEW Twin Peaks Trailer

Literally salivating.

Drinking with Comics #34

Topics of discussion include but are not limited to Marvel's Secret Empire and the ideological tom foolery of making Captain America a nazi, DC's imminent appropriation of the Watchmen into the DCU and Mike's reason for hating superstar comic book artist Alex Ross!

TWIN PEAKS TRAILER!!!

Well, of course we aren't going to get more than this, which is still cool with me. But oh my did this ever brighten up my day!

Drinking with Comics Issue #33

The new episode is up!

He Knows You're...

... fucking someone else. From the intro to the Scottish deviation on the second chorus, the only problem with this version and the entire live Origin of the Feces is it kind of makes it hard to listen to Slow, Deep and Hard. So good.

Oh yeah, the best thing about this record? It's not actually live. Here's the story; it makes me laugh every time. I think I read somewhere else that after the studio fees, the band used the money the label gave them for the 'live' production on vodka.

Seven Years Ago Today Peter Steele Left Us

Amazing image/lyric pairing by nervennahrung

As I sit at my computer typing this morning I'm listening to Swans's The Glowing Man, disc one. It's very zen and flows perfectly from my half hour of mediation and ongoing efforts to put proverbial pen-to-paper. But in the background there's a growing sense of unease, as if I've remembered something but not fully realized it yet. Then it hits me: April. April 14th.

Interestingly enough, upon waking this morning I spent an hour or so finally reading the first trade of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's The Wicked and The Divine, which centers around the death and rebirth of gods as rock stars.

Peter Steele, I miss your music. I love what you gave us and will want more until I follow you out to the next big Halloween Party. To commemorate your passing here's an absolutely shattering live version of one of the songs I always go back to. Love You to Death illustrates how Steele - and by extension Type O as a whole - could pen beautiful, emotionally resonant epics and place them beside their pitch black satire without ever breaking the overall tone they perfected over the course of almost, but not quite, twenty years.

Rest in Peace. Now time to break out the Type O.

Swans - The World Looks Red/The World Looks Black

My morning, perfectly encapsulated.

Mastodon - Steambreather

Emperor of Sand has been out a week today. I don't dig it as much as Once More Round the Sun, but it's pretty damn great. A lot of its pretty dense and takes a few listens to crack. Not this one - when track four came up on my first go-through I knew from its opening chords it was a force to be reckoned with.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Now I Got Worry

... is my pick for this week's edition of The Joup Friday Album. Not gonna lie, I mainly write fiction now so writing like this is a little more difficult for me now. That said, I'm pretty proud of this one. Great album to open a Friday to!

It!

Well, if you remember the original TV version of IT as being sacred and how dare they re-make it, you clearly haven't watched it lately. I rented it 6 or so years ago and was aghast at how "television" it was. I mean, I'm a huge Night Court fan but Harry Anderson in this role? John Ritter? JOHN BOY? No, the only great thing about that version of IT is Tim Curry - who is amazing - but who is not nearly enough to make it good. So this? Yeah, I'll give it a whirl.

*How many times can I say 'it' in a post about IT?

Zeal & Ardor

Zeal & Ardor

Holy smokes. Where have you been all my life? I get shades of Algiers here until the black metal influence rears its head and I'm in LOVE. Thanks to Jacob for sharing and then reminding me to actually listen to his link while I was off in submersion. Heading to Zeal & Ardor's bandcamp in a bit as they are bound to be a staple in 2017.

New Mastodon Video is Hysterically Awesome

I haven't posted any new Mastodon here yet because I only surfaced the other day for that Whigs and caught wind of some of the stuff coming down the pipes. This is one. With Show Yourself and the only other song I've heard thus far, Andromeda, new album Emperor of Sand - due March 31st -  sounds right in line with Once More Round the Sun, which I loved.

New Afghan Whigs

I've been so consumed by work lately that I've not had the time or gumption to do much other than come home at night, write for an hour or two and then watch Bates Motel, which despite my initial knee-jerk assumption would be drivel is actually quite amazing. Aside from Bates in the visual medium, musically I've been cycling back through a lot of stuff I already have but haven't listened to in a while. Celebration, older TV on the Radio and Underworld to name but a few. But new music... I've just not been there right now (gotta get that Crystal Fairy record I'd been looking forward to for so long). Then Brown sends me this link and I just gush.

Can't wait until the new album's release on May 5th via Sub Pop.

Live Annabelle Doll Stream

Over on Dan Rivera's FB page RIGHT NOW you can stream two men move the real Annabelle from one case to another. Will anything happen? Probably not, but Ihaving read the story of Annabelle years ago, it has long fascinated me (even if the Annabelle movie blew).

The Return...

"It's been a while..."

Drab Majesty Dot in the Sky

From the bad news of Miguel Ferrer's passing to good news: The Demonstration, the new album by Drab Majesty, drops tomorrow. You can still pre-order the vinyl (or CD) on Dais Records's website HERE. The full album is streaming on Brooklyn Vegan now and I recommend it very much. "Dot in the Sky" is the second track on the album and an immediate indication that The Demonstration - the follow-up to 2015's BRILLIANT album Careless  - will get just as much play from me in 2017 as Careless did last year.

I can't wait!

RIP Miguel Ferrer

Alright 2017, don't you fucking start...

Seriously, possibly my favorite character from Twin Peaks and an all-around great actor. You will be missed.

Agent Cooper's Return - Teaser

Torture! Torture! Torture!

David Bowie - We Prick You

One of my favorites from 1995's excellent Outside, another reinvention for the Starman.

May 21st

Being that this announcement came Monday I'm pretty late. Rough week. That said, I've waited over twenty-five years so, you know, what's four extra days to publicly proclaim how insanely happy this has made me? Like anyone that has seen this blog more than once needs a reminder how happy the return of Twin Peaks has made me.

Reunion will be the sweetest of wines, the most welcome of triumphs. I Love You David Lynch.

1 Year, 2 Days

I still remember it in crystal clear replay. Sleeping on the couch downstairs, ex and her parents up in the bedrooms. The last time I'd see her. The welcome end of an era. Phone alarm sounds at 4:30 AM. My hand strikes out, snatches the device and silences the annoying klaxon that heralds another week of work. Not a complaint exactly. Text message from Tori. I hardly hear from Tori anymore. No bullshit, just the erosion of time, distance. These six words:

Holy shit. David Bowie is dead.

Holy shit indeed. Maybe I've belabored the point; don't care. Read this if you want to understand my possibly overly dramatic reaction, which still resounds like the after image of a film you wish you hadn't watched and are afraid you can never unsee.

We need you David Bowie. The world's gone Phillip Jefferies in your absence.

The Neon Demon

Finally watched this last night and it might just be my movie of 2016. Beautiful is an understatement; the visuals are equally hallucinatory, mesmerizing, magnificent and scandalous. And the score - once again Mr. Cliff Martinez hits it out of the park when pairing sounds to Mr. Refn's images. I will own this eventually, and I will order it in the equally mesmerizing double vinyl set on the Milan Records website.

The Neon Demon only strengths my resolve that Nicolas Winding Refn, along with Fede Alvarez and Denis Villeneuve, is at the top of my "modern directors I would follow to hell" list.

Oh Yeah! New Soviet Soviet Is OUT!

December was a crazy month at the old Biorepository where I spend my days, and in the clusterfuck of work, buying gifts and get-togethers I completely overlooked the fact that Italy's Soviet Soviet released a new record on Felte at the beginning of the month. I'll be ordering this one soon enough over on bandcamp, in the meantime, here's something to wet your aural whistle!

Damn You Mezco Exclusives

Seriously. Just take my money.

My Favorite Records of 2016

A couple of days ago I published the list of my favorite albums of 2016. This song is from one of them. You can see them over on Joup.