2019: January 31st: New Ritual Howls - Alone Together

I was super psyched to receive an alert yesterday afternoon that Detroit's Ritual Howls are releasing a new album in March! What's more, there is an awesome, limited edition that includes a splatter vinyl of the record accompanied by a hardbound book that documents all of the band's lyrics through the years, as well as tour photos. I ordered mine as soon as I saw it and if you wish to do the same, or maybe just pre-order one of the other versions of the album from the always wonderful Felte Records, here's the link.

Having tackled the setback with the chapter in Shadow Play, things are going great! Still reading it aloud to K, and meanwhile I unexpectedly began a new short. It's the first time I've ever written "Detective Fiction" and I feel like it's going pretty damn well. Of course, this isn't your ordinary Detective story. You'll see...

Playlist from 1/30:

Melvins - A Senile Animal
Wasted Theory -
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Ritual Howls - Into The Water

Card of the day:

Keeping it short because, as the card says, Stagnant waters rot.

2019: January 30th

Two days ago Preoccupations released this video for Compliance. I don't even know what to say, other than I feel like someone has perfectly captured a nightmare I had several years ago. Incredible.

Another NCBD without much hitting the stands. I passed completely last week, might go in today for these:

Consistently fantastic and always on time:

We talked about this on Drinking with Comics a few months back. I read Chris' copy of the first few issues then, but never picked them up.

Infinite Dark is currently one of my favorite books. By far:

Might be the only book of the three Sandman Universe titles I started reading that I'm interested in continuing:

Outcast is one book I'm seriously close to dropping. It's not bad, I just don't know how much I care and I never read the issues as they come out, always after they pile up for a while:

Playlist from 1/30:

Pigface - Notes from the Underground
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Goblin - Dawn of the Dead OST

No card today.

2019: January 28th

It's been a while since I threw any Pigface into my daily routine. This was always among my favorite tracks from the band.

True Detective surprised the hell out of me last night. I mentioned before how Jeremy Saulnier was originally enlisted to direct the entirety of season three, then split. Daniel Sackheim was brought in for episode three, and earned an executive producer credit on the episode, if not the series (not sure). But after that, the series' IMDB page remained suspiciously devoid of a director credit for the remainder of the season. Which had me a little bit worried.

Well, that worry proved unfounded. Creator Nic Pizzolatto stepped in for episode four in what I believe was his directorial debut, and he absolutely KILLED it. Best episode of the season so far, and such a great installment that I'm fairly certain I now feel completely confident the show is back on track after that disappointing second season. Such restraint on that ending, which made it absolutely EPIC. I'm loving the cast, especially Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo, and Stephen Dorff. Oh and this guy. I totally feel for this guy, even while retaining my suspicions as well:

Playlist from 1/27:

Shane Carruth - Upstream Color OST
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man
Algiers - Eponymous
Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)
James Brown - Hell

Card of the day:

Lots of Swords lately, all lining up with my edgy mood. Currently, I have massive Cognitive Dissonance, but actually took the first step in (hopefully) fixing that last night. Because it is kinda ruining me in some regards right now. I've been volatile in my daily life, and that's not good.

2019: January 27th

How's that for a relaxing Sunday evening, eh? I've been hung up on a Dillinger binge again. This album... this freakin' album, I've been listening to it for almost twenty years, but I still don't think I fully grasp it. So gorgeous, and mind-bending, and dangerous. Speaking of Mindbending...

Two nights ago, I re-watched Shane Carruth's Upstream Color. Jesus, what a film. I remember the first time I put it on  I instantly became spellbound. There's a fluidity to the storytelling that makes me think of it as a cinematic poem. I won't pretend I 'get' a lot of it, but after watching it, I dug around online for a while and arrived at some pretty interesting 'answers.' We need another film from this man. The Modern Ocean has been listed on his IMDB for a while; let's hope we get that sooner rather than later.



Playlist from 1/26:

Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the White Horse
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Pinebender - Working Nine to Wolf
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Boy Harsher - Country Girl EP
Boy Harsher - Yr Body is Nothing

No card today.

2019: January 26th

I'm a pretty big fan of Jim Jarmusch the filmmaker, and Only Lovers Left Alive is probably my favorite of his films. But Jarmusch also makes music: sparse, eerie, haunted music. Lately, as I've gone deeper into his musical collaborations with Jozef Van Wissem, I've found my favorite of their work is the OST for the same film. The Only Lovers Left Alive OST is a deep dive record; despite the epic rock-dirge of the opening track, embedded above, this album pulls me down into what feels like a sacred, cavernous place in my psyche. A place daily life makes it hard to get to often. It's a great feeling, to connect with myself through music like this, especially when it's not dependent on the application of mind-altering substances to get there. It's literally just 'Press Play and Go.'

This past week, K and I went through the first season of David Fincher's Mindhunter series on Netflix. It is fantastic. I've heard some folks say this is 'boring,' but I don't get that at all. Fascinating is the word I'd use. And I often avoid sequence, *ahem*, serial killer stories because they disturb me too much. Something about the way this one unfolds is very balanced though, so that even though you go a lot of dark places, it's not all there is. Can't wait for the second season.



Oh! And Hannah Gross - who I got to know as the lead in Dead Wax late last year on Shudder - is a co-star, and she is terrific!

Playlist from 01/25:

Tool - Aenima
Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Explode into Colors - Quilts
The Effigies - Remains Nonviewable
Boy Harsher - Careful
Gary Numan - Replicas
Boy Harsher - Country Girl EP
Curtis Harding - Where We Are (Single)
Specimen - Azoic
David Bowie - Low

Card of the day:

Loud and clear. See, what's happening is, when I finished the book and began reading it to K, I expected to find some problems areas that needed edits. I made it through a near-pristine first act, only to get four chapters into the second act (of three) and get caught up in a chapter that I have now been re-writing for five days. It's all there, I just can't seem to get it fluid. There's a social obligation we have today, and I'd been wondering if I should skip it to write. This tells me my hunch is correct.

2019: January 25th - New Boy Harsher Track!

Can NOT wait for this album to drop next Friday. It's streaming now on NPR HERE. If you haven't, see Boy Harsher live. They are enthralling.

Playlist from 1/23:

United Future Organization - 3rd Perspective
Post Stardom Depression - Prime Time Looks A Lot Like Amateur Hour
David Bowie - Blackstar
Deftones - Gore
David Bowie - Reality Tour (Disc 1)
Tin Machine - Eponymous
Ghost - Circe (single)

Playlist from 1/24:

Wasted Theory -
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the White Horse (Pre-release single)
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Cold Cave - You & Me & Infinity EP
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Drab Majesty - Careless
Tool - Aenima
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys
Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Belong - October Language
Trust Obey - Fear & Bullets
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox


Card of the day:

Guilt over a falling out; waters of friendship tainted. But is it poison, or can it be filtered back to purity?

2019: January 23rd

Long my favorite track from 2003's Nocturama, until this moment I had no idea there was a video for this song.

Short post today.

Playlist from 1/22:

Morphine - The Night
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Apparat - Devil's Walk
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
Algiers - Eponymous
Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)
Godflesh - Post Self
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Card of the day:

Free, except for that one massive weight, which currently comes in the form of a chapter I encountered last night in my read-through of the novel to K; needs some serious work.