No Justice, the new album by Federale dropped today, and it's every bit of cinematic, desert-washed goodness you'd expect. I'm relatively new to the band, having first been exposed this past spring when I saw A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night on Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive In. If you know that film, then you know what an awesome soundtrack it has; Federale has several of the key tracks on it.
I'm definitely in a tailspin through the 00s right now, and one of the band's that acted as a tent pole for my musical obsessions during those dark years was TV On The Radio.
It's funny that I never really got to know their last album, Seeds, so in keeping with my MO, I kinda saved one for later. I know they never officially broke up, and I'm sure we are bound to see a new album from them at some point, but it's been going on six years, and I've been away from them as long as they've been away from the world at large, so right now, things feel a little final.
This song really makes me want to start the Breaking Bad re-watch I have planned in the near future.
**
Playlist from 11/07:
Final - Solaris
Revocation - Teratogenesis
Revocation - The Outer Ones
dan le sac Vs Scroobious Pip - Angles
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Me and that Man - Songs of Love and Death
Arthur Ahbez - Gold
Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai
Jogger - Nephicide (single)
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone
TVOTR Playlist
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
**
Always a good card to see, this reads to me as success coming TODAY on a short I've been hammering for well over a year (off and on). I recently set aside everything else to focus on this one because I have a very cool submission opportunity, so hopefully, the appearance of this card bodes well.
I saw this at Beyondfest back in September. It's awesome. There are a few issues I had with Richard Stanley's Adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space - for one the change in the title's spelling - but overall, I loved this film. The third act is like acid kicking in at the top of a very tall roller coaster, and it makes up for any other issues I had with the film.
**
I've found it difficult to find the time to do these pages lately, but I'm not going anywhere. Since I've last checked in, there's a lot I've been into.
I finished my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science, which ended last month with issue forty-three. I'd been buying this one monthly since it began, but I'd fallen off actually reading it about five issues before the series finale, knowing full well I'd be doing a series re-read once the story was complete. I can't stress enough what a different experience that was, and what an altogether affecting series this is on me. The story - which is loaded with pulp Sci-Fi awesomeness that reminds me a bit of Clark Ashton Smith, a bit of Arthur C. Clark, and a lot of all those nameless pulp paperbacks I checked out of the library or acquired at the school book fair as a kid - is really just a mask for Remender to expound on everything from Life, Relationships, Philosophy, Science, Meaning. The man is wise; if you got a hint of that from his more widely known Deadly Class, give this a try.
Fell back hard into Bill Hader and Alec Berg's Barry. K and I had started this near the end of September, only to shelve it for 31 Days of Horror. Well, three episodes away from the second season finale, and I haven't been this blown away by a show in quite some. Hader's tone nails life - it's funny, awkward, tragic, brutal... Barry will give you 'all the feels.'
The fifth episode of the second season is very close to the best episode of serialized, half-hour television I have ever seen, and it had me laughing so hard I literally almost choked. A good thing.
**
This past Tuesday, the fourth and final volume of Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt's The Wild Storm. I picked up and plowed through the first two trades in Chicago last December, and since I acquired volume three but held out until I could read the entire series in a short burst. Following Black Science, that time is now.
The Wild Storm is, simply put, one of the greatest comics I've ever read. I'm sure when it's over I'm going to want to follow the spin-offs out into their own little orbits; that may or may not happen. This core title, however, is breathtaking.
Reading this in trade is the definitive reminder I needed to wait for the collections of Ellis and Hitch's Batman's Grave, which is on issue two right now, I believe. Seemingly contrarian to this, I've opted to tag back into Ellis and Jason Howard's Trees - which just started up again. The difference is, with Image titles, there are no internal ads disrupting the flow of the book, so the story is intact.
It's moving back into Winter (yeah, those of you in actual cold-climates can laugh at me), and I'm reading a lot of Warren Ellis, so I'm kind of being pulled into a cool re-contextualization with a lot of the music I listened to in the mid-to-late 00s, because a lot of what I did after moving to LA in 2006 was read Warren Ellis and listen to music. You'll see this begin to be reflected in the list below, near the end, as I try to assemble a playlist from the last week that shows my transition out of Halloween-mode and into Winter mode.
Playlist from the previous week or so:
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Brand New - God and the Devil Are Raging Inside Me...
David J, Federale, and Tim Newman - The Day That David Bowie Died
Chasms - On The Legs Of Love Purified...
Federale - Trouble (Pre-release single)
Duende and David J - Oracle of the Horizontal
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch - An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil
Isis - In the Absence of Truth
Opeth - Orchid
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Flatline - Pave the Way
Tyler Childers - Purgatory
Paolo Nutini - Caustic Love
Tyler Childers - Country Squire
Hank III - Straight to Hell
Timber Timbre - Eponymous
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III Satur
Revocation - The Outer Ones
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy
Because although I live in Los Angeles and really have no business calling this 'winter', I wanted to start the dying time off with a dirge.
**
31 Days of Horror Final:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
10/02: Lords of Chaos
10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1
10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3
10/05: Bliss/VFW
10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog
10/07: Halloween 2018
10/08: Hell House, LLC
10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)
10/10: Creepshow Episode 3
10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)
10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena
10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween
10/26: Murder Party
10/27: AHS 1984 Ep. 6/Arsenic and Old Lace/The Fair Haired Child (Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 9)
10/28: May
10/29: The Exorcist (Theatrical Cut)
10/30: Nightmare Cinema
10/31: Night of the Living Dead
I tried to watch Bob Clark's Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, as well, but failed. For anyone interested, my favorite zombie films are as follows:
Dawn of the Dead (original)
Night of the Living Dead
Day of the Dead
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
Shaun of the Dead
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
To Kako (Evil)
**
Playlist from 10/31/19:
Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery
Type O Negative - October Rust
Halloween Playlist
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Mayhem - Daemon
Type O Negative - World Coming Down
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST
**
Card of the day:
Hmm... money direction, for sure. Maybe I'll hold off two weeks on the small investment I'm primed to make.
Yes, I post this song every year. I will continue to do so for the rest of my time on Earth. Nothing sets the Autumnal mood for me like this song, and this album (digipak version). My, how I miss Peter Steele and the boys.
**
31 Days of Horror:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
10/02: Lords of Chaos
10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1
10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3
10/05: Bliss/VFW
10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog
10/07: Halloween 2018
10/08: Hell House, LLC
10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)
10/10: Creepshow Episode 3
10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)
10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena
10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween
10/26: Murder Party
10/27: AHS 1984 Ep. 6/Arsenic and Old Lace/The Fair Haired Child (Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 9)
10/28: May
10/29: The Exorcist (Theatrical Cut)
10/30: Nightmare Cinema
I felt considerably saddened two nights ago when, for the second time in the last ten years, I watched William Friedkin's The Exorcist and felt nothing in the way of the fear that the film used to evoke in me. If you chart my experiences with Friedkin's masterpiece, there was my awareness of it as a kid; I'm certain I saw parts of it as a child, but I don't think I saw the entire film until somewhere in the early to mid-90s. I don't really remember that viewing, other than as an introduction. My critical faculties for film, in general, were burgeoning at the time, but still largely unsophisticated. Then, in the early 00s, I watched it with a friend, stoned out of my mind in a darkened room, and felt a very real fear that bordered on dread. This feeling stayed with me for at least a day afterward and inspired my oft-repeated axiom, "I don't believe in the Devil, except for three days after I watch The Exorcist."
This used to be exactly true.
I watched the film again in 2004 with the same friend and a few other fellows, all stoned, lights out, in the living room of the house some friends and I used to rent in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. I remember that viewing best because I was so freaked out during it I didn't want to get up and go to the restroom, which was about three feet beyond the television.
Fast forward to somewhere around 2009-2010. Living in Los Angeles now, I invited a few friends over to watch the Director's Cut of The Exorcist, the version I had never seen that contained the freaky and much-hyped Spider-walk sequence. After having talked it up for quite some time to everyone present, this was the first viewing where the film really did not affect me almost at all, certainly not the way it had in the past. That brooding, sustained fear is what I look for in 'scary movies.' I chalked this up to the Director's Cut potentially having different pacing.
After my viewing of the Theatrical Cut again two nights ago, I now find that it's not the film, it's me.
Most Horror films use jump scares, because they're fun and easy. Some use gore or disturbing premises and images to achieve their desired effect. FEW can create the air of menace I'm talking about here. The Exorcist - which although it appears no longer affects me I still consider the scariest movie ever made - definitely does it the best. The original Blair Witch Project also does this and has the advantage of real human fear being captured on film in places (no, I am not suggesting the marketing that the film was real is true. But BWP was partially shot with the three actors operating under false pretenses, and long before the hype of that film began, I read an article that talked about how the directors followed the actors through the woods for several days, employing a magnet to disrupt their compass and actually preying on them by making the strange noises in the middle of the night and, at one point, actually running up and attacking the tent while the actors were inside freaking out). More recently, during its original theatrical run, I was surprised to find James Wan's Insidious had some genuinely scary scenes - the baby monitor and the ghost that walks through the wall, in particular. In fact, several of Wan's franchise films have great moments of sustained fear - think of the two sisters reacting to the dark corner or the handclaps in The Conjuring - but the films usually also take a misstep along the way that neutralizes the overall effect. This year, as part of 31 Days of Horror, I was pleasantly surprised to find Hell House, LLC has some very real fear-inducing moments, and nary a misstep afterward. But off the top of my head, that's all I can think of (always looking for suggestions). They say familiarity breeds contempt, but I've never agreed with that. However, perhaps at this point, I've had the maximum number of viewings one can have with a legitimately fear-producing film before it loses its power. Not to mention, if you add all the lampooning of key scenes from The Exorcist in comedy sketches and pop culture, I'm afraid I may lay this one to rest.
**
Playlist from the last few days:
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Boy Harsher - Careful
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Billy Idol - Greatest Hits
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Deth Crux - Pears of Anguish EP
Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Ministry - Psalm 69
Black Pumas - Eponymous
The Dead Milkmen - The King in Yellow
The Misfits - American Psycho
Card of the Day:
Is this banging my head against the wall or the edict I should move beyond my frustrations and continue to work toward my goal? Number two, always.
What better way to build up to Halloween than some Goblin, from the 2013 Tour E.P.
**
31 Days of Horror:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
10/02: Lords of Chaos
10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1
10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3
10/05: Bliss/VFW
10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog
10/07: Halloween 2018
10/08: Hell House, LLC
10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)
10/10: Creepshow Episode 3
10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)
10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena
10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween
10/26: Murder Party
10/27: AHS 1984 Ep. 6/Arsenic and Old Lace/The Fair Haired Child (Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 9)
10/28: May
**
Playlist from 10/28:
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
Type O Negative - October Rust
Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
Fields of the Nephilim -
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Dead Milkmen - The King in Yellow
Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave - Phantasm OST
Goblin - 2013 Tour E.P.
Nachtmystium - As Made 7"
Claudio Simonetti - Phenomena OST
The description of this album is one of the more intriguing musical ideas I've seen expressed by any band in recent memory. This is kind of what I wish Tool had to say about Fear Inoculum; a band's Intent with a given piece of music can completely alter the way I look it/listen to it. I used to think Tool thought this deeply about their music. I am no longer sure of that, in regard to Maynard and the boys. Sunn O))), however, continue to express the hell out of me.
Also, recorded by Steve Albini. Always a damn good thing.
You can pre-order Pyroclasts at Southern Lord Records HERE.
**
31 Days of Horror:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
10/02: Lords of Chaos
10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1
10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3
10/05: Bliss/VFW
10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog
10/07: Halloween 2018
10/08: Hell House, LLC
10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)
10/10: Creepshow Episode 3
10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)
10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena
10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween
10/26: Murder Party
10/27: AHS 1984 Ep. 6/Arsenic and Old Lace/(The Fair Haired Child Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 9)
**
Playlist from 10/27:
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
Billy Idol - Greatest Hits
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
**
Card of the day:
I needed this, which seems to be a running theme with my Pulls of late. A direct reference to a short I've been picking at for almost a year; I finished it, realized the story had gotten away from what I intended (in a bad way), and have periodically gone back and re-worked it over and over. I nearly finished it last night, and when later mentioned the new direction to K, who expressed bewilderment that I had removed some of her favorite elements. In thinking about it, I realize the story was all but finished last year, my real problem was with the ending, which I should be able to synthesize if I go back and master all of the ingredients along the way.
Praise be to the might Bloody Disgusting for plastering this one on their front page, right where it belongs! Not sure what to even say. Talk about inspiring. Courtlan Gourdan did this in 72 hours for $200? It might be time to finally think seriously about making the Short Film I've had planned for a few years now.
**
On Friday, October 18th, I had the members of The Horror Vision Podcast over to record an episode that started out with a planned viewing/reaction to Babak Anvari's Wounds. However, things slipped from my grasp - the battery meter on our Recording Device read a solid three out of four lines for not one but two pairs of batteries, only to die unexpectedly. The delay pushed back the viewing until we missed our spot to have everyone present participate, and realistically we were down my Left Hand Man Anthony, so the night just ran into random horror film conversations. Which was definitely cool in its own right, hence why I took the time to stitch together a mostly coherent episode and put it online. In listening back to it, there's one rough edit where two different conversations unexpectedly bleed into one another, and you can absolutely hear my up-at-four-AM ass lose steam somewhere near the middle of the episode, but overall, pretty solid discussion. Check it out, and we should have another new one up sometime real soon.
10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1
10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3
10/05: Bliss/VFW
10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog
10/07: Halloween 2018
10/08: Hell House, LLC
10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)
10/10: Creepshow Episode 3
10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)
10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena
10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween
10/26: Murder Party
**
Playlist for 10/26:
Tones on Tail - Everything
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Zombi - Shape Shift
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Ghost - Infestissumam
The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
**
Card of the day:
Interesting. I've been warring with myself for the last twelve hours or so, over an awkward social situation that blasted my night in splinters last night. Well, a series of them really, culminating with an almost telekinetic manifestation of the anxiety I've been carrying with me for a few days. Lots of stress right now, at work and in life. This Pull is a nice indication I should let it go.
