I haven't been this excited for a new Ministry album in quite some time. I'm loving this song; the "fuck the police" samples seem a bit overdone, but the old-school flavor of the music grabbed me immediately (Thanks Mr. Brown!)
READ:
Parts 1 & 2 of my first Reddit Nosleep serialized story is now up. You can read it HERE. It's kind of about a Haunted Garage. Kinda.
NCBD:
Big Day for comics. Again.
"Get April!"
JUST reading the core title, but so far, for my first modern Star Wars series, I'm digging this one. I mean, the last issue we had 4-Lom and Zuckus. I've been waiting for an expansion on those cats since I was like four years old.
Can't wait to read this AND see the film, which I believe should be available to rent on Prime.
The Silver Coin recently got "renewed" for more issues beyond this initial four-part run, and I am totally stoked for more.
Been a minute, and this awesome BW&B series totally fell off my radar.
More Spidey, 'Nuff said!
Playlist:
Windhand - Eternal Return
Ministry - Animositisomina
Ministry - Good Trouble (pre-release single)
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)
Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Card:
Big picture. Now that the Nosleep is going, I'll take this as a nod in the right direction as yesterday I dove back into Shadow Play, Book Two.
I have become quite enamored of late with Denmark's Black Metal auteurs Sunken and their 2020 album Livslede. The entire album is quite a deep ride; there are so many textures here, beginning with what you might call a more traditional, second-wave Black Metal approach and then slowly mutating into a swirling mass of orchestrated, melodic chaos. This is beautiful brutality, which is serendipitous since my Beautiful Brutality (and Horror Vision) podcast cohost her_black_wings is the one who turned me onto Sunken in the first place.
I finally sat down and watched Billy Senese's The Dead Center. Wow. I really dug this one quite a bit. Shane Carruth leads a cast that all turn in fantastic performances, and the editing creates a kind of spiraling sense of unease that climaxes with a supremely nihilistic ending.
This one is included with Prime at the moment, so if you're in the mood for something that is both familiar and unique, give it a whirl.
Playlist:
Agnes Obel - Aventine
16 Horsepower - Hoarse
King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)
It had been a minute since I'd pulled out Polica's 2012 debut Give You the Ghost. I don't really know all that much about this group/performer, and I'd forgotten how much I like this album. Above is the stand-out track, but really, the entire record plays like a cohesive whole. In the interim since I've checked in with Polica - yeah, it's been a minute - they've released quite a few records. I'm just starting to go through them now.
NCBD:
Another big pull list this week. Jesus Marvel, take my money:
As I suspected, we're closing in on the end of Nick Spencer's run on AMS, and looks like a lot of great stuff is happening. While I've been reading this, I've also been re-reading my old school, 80s Spidey comics, and I can kind of see how the current, post Brand New Day continuity is winding its way back to the one I grew up with. I don't love all of it - I especially don't like the retconning of Ned Leeds and AMS #289 which is HOLY in my opinion - but I can live with all of it just out of curiosity as to how this will land and, subsequently, how the new iteration of the title that kicks of at the end of the summer will play out.
I bought the first issue more out of resale ideology, but I'm curious enough that I might pick this up.
Another one that I'm not certain I'll actually be buying, but I'm curious enough to consider it, simply because I still love Flash Thompson in a Symbiote suite, and if I can't have him in Venom, I might just follow him here. Honestly though, at a glance, all these other Symobiotic characters feel superfluous at best.
Loving this book and this issue probably wins for the best cover this week.
The finale to what has been an eloquent and downright beautiful exploration of how human beings relate to their own mortality.
Yet another that I'm not entirely sure I'm interested in buying. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Netflix series - I'd be looking forward to it more if there was Hordak or a Slime Pit involved - but the prospect of a comic based on what has historically been a completely under-represented and almost ignored property from my childhood looks pretty good on 'paper' at the moment.
The first issue didn't blow me away, but I'm interested enough to try number two.
Still digging this weird SciFi/Horror/Action mash-up.
This cover RIPS! Hot damn, it's nice to hear such a spot-on cover of a song I love by a band I despise, especially since I don't have to have Dave Mustaine sing it, replaced instead by the inimitable Troy Sanders.
Watch:
A friend at work recommended this new HULU flick directed by John Lee.
HULU is a platform I generally don't use all that much; incorrectly or not, I associate them with being a bit more 'family friendly' than aligns with my tastes, despite the fact that they have long been a sponsor of Beyondfest and pull out a lot of stops for Horror come every autumn with their HULUween. Still, with the new seasons of American Horror Story and its brand new spin-off American Horror Stories both moving to the 'FX on HULU' status, as well as their ongoing relationship with Blumhouse - mostly to middling results from what I've seen - they're definitely trying to keep abreast of the genre. And now, holy cow: False Positive is A24!
(Have I mentioned that I'm starting to fear Horror is becoming too mainstream? No? Well, that's a discussion for another time, then).
So yeah, False Positive stars Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, and Pierce Brosnan, and it is creepy A.F. I will say, this isn't the A24 I'm accustomed to, exactly. There's a reductionist quality insofar as it feels more like a Blumhouse "Into the Dark" - which I think of as the calibre for the new "TV movie" format for the streaming age - than it does the A24 we see get theatrical treatment. Still, this is high-quality stuff, and it's definitely up there with the better flicks I've seen so far this year.
Playlist:
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Chairlift - Something
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Tape Waves - Bright
Anthrax - Spreading The Disease
King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)
King Woman - Doubt EP
Sunken - Livslede
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Perturbator - I Am the Night
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering
Silent - Modern Hate
Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Card:
Bull in a china shop, that's how I always read this card at first. I'm regrouping my strategy on this Nosleep serial I'll be posting soon (but not today). Don't want to come out of the gates strong and crawl to the finish line.
Holy cow! A new King Woman track dropped two days ago and it's a doozy! Bloody Disgustingt mentioned an Elizabeth Bathory vibe, and while I definitely see that, even more I see the influence of Joe Begos's Bliss. Either way, Celestial Blues is out July 30th on Relapse Records, and you can pre-order it HERE.
Watch:
After watching Cody Calahan's Vicious Fun last night, I'm thinking this may end up as my favorite movie of the year. If not numero uno, it's up there. What is for sure, at least thus far, is Ari Millen - who some will know as Mark/Ira/Rudy/a bunch of other clones on Orphan Black - seems cinched as my favorite performance of the year
This one's a BLAST, and I can't recommend it enough.
Playlist:
The Kills - Midnight Boom
The Kills - No Wow
Entropy - Liminal
The Casket Lottery - Survival is for Cowards
King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)
King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering
Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
King Woman - Doubt EP
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Led Zeppelin - I
Led Zeppelin - IV
King Woman - I Wanna Be Adored (single)
Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
Chairlift - Something
Polica - Give You the Ghost
Turquoise Moon - Sunset City
Card:
Crash Course? Brain Surgery? Either way, I will try to keep my wits about me today.
From possibly the greatest album of the 1980s. This will probably be taken down by the estate, even though I'm not trying to do anything here other than spread love for one absolutely amazing song. Listen to the keys below the surface. Also, just listen to the way this song does a complete transformation halfway through. I would be hard-pressed to think of a song that sounds more progressively 80s, and by that I mean it doesn't sound dated. Or nostalgic, exactly, but still futuristic, in the way that 80s Psyber Punk still feels futuristic, even though we've moved beyond or outright incorporated so much of its textures into the fabric of our everyday world.
NCBD:
HOLY SHIT! How are these covers just getting better and better? I believe this is the penultimate issue of the series, and I will most definitely be sad to see it go. I'll now follow Daniel Warren Johnson anywhere he chooses to go.
Issue #1 of Red Room has been banging around in my head for the last month, and I'm psyched to jump back into it with the second issue!
I didn't realize That Texas Blood was returning so quickly! Very cool; I loved the first arc and can't wait to jump into the second. A suitable replacement for Southern Bastards (for the moment).
The finale! I'll probably be re-reading this series start to finish now that it's done.
If that cover doesn't evoke Clive Barker, I don't know what does.
Playlist:
Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai
White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto
Not a lot of music today, as I was fully enraptured with the 22nd installment of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards. This is not only the best thing he's written - hard for me to say that considering how much I love Lunar Park - but his readings have become wickedly engaging. The interplay between Abby Malory and young Bret blew me away.
Card:
So, I canceled the meet-up with my old friend and postponed the posting of my nosleep serial. Lots of reasons to go ahead with both, and as this card suggests maybe I should have. The meet-up was a little outside my control, the nosleep postponement was all me second-guessing myself. Bad idea? Maybe, but I genuinely think there is something bigger the post can be than what it is. Better. I'll give it a week. Then it's on.
This song will never get old. One of the first Zeppelin songs I heard, back in high school when I discovered them, and still a favorite.
Watch:
I finally saw Kurtis David Harder's 2019 film Spiral yesterday on Shudder:
Really dug this one. Great flow; this film really makes you feel a mounting expectation for evil, and then delivers with a totally nihilistic ending.
Playlist:
Pixies - Trompe le Monde
The Kills - Midnight Boom
The Black Keys - Magic Potion
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
Card:
Continuing a return to my original Thoth Deck:
With my Reddit Nosleep series starting today and a meet-up with an old friend wherein I may pitch a collaborative project just because I love working with the person and haven't in a looong time, I'm definitely starting some journeys.
