Mastodon's Hushed and Grim kind of fell off my radar these last few months, so nice of these guys to unleash a video for one of my favorite tracks on the double album and put it back in sight. The intro to this song is insane, and then it kinda just glides into a super soulful (for metal) verse and becomes one of the catchiest songs on the record.
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I'm hoping to hit a couple flicks at the virtual arm of Kansas City's Panic Fest this year. Johannes Grenzfurthner's Masking Threshold is top of my list:
You start a trailer with a John Cage reference and then move into talking about anechoic chambers and you have my attention.
Playlist:
Ash Ra Tempel - Friendship
Eagulls - Eponymous
Testament - The New Order
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Mothership - High Strangeness
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST
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Uncanny. I'm not going to go into details, but this is a PERFECTLY timed reminder to keep the peace.
I've been listening to the live double album David Bowie released from the Reality tour. Not only is Reality my favorite Bowie album, I think A Reality Tour is my favorite Bowie live album, as well. Such a great, career-spanning selection of songs, and some especially insightful new versions of old favorites and deep cuts, the best of which might just be this re-working of "Rebel Rebel", the studio version of which was included on a later edition of Reality as a bonus track.
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I can't wait for Friday. Seeing Joe Bob and Darcy kick off a new season will be like old friends having a party after time away, and my Last Drive-In text threads - Tommy, Ray and Missy - are always a welcome respite.
My bet is we finally get Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which hit Shudder for the first time since I've been subscribed (2018) and leaves the service on the first of next month.
Playlist:
Calexico - El Mirador
Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses
David Lynch - The Big Dream
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
Testament - The New Order
Download - The Eyes of Stanley Pain
Puppy Gristle - Eponymous (Thanks, Klint!)
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The mass of all my possessions occasionally weighs on me. Yesterday was one of those days.
Perturbator and Cult of Luna's Johannes Persson have a new project called Final Light and the first track is F*&king awesome! Imagine Dangerous Days with deep, guttural vocals and you'll have entered the ballpark. I anticipate great things from this one. You can pre-order the album from Red Creek HERE.
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I saw Robert Eggers' The Northman this past Saturday. I was sober, however, as my cohost Ray and I discuss with Seattle University's Professor of Film John Trafton on the newest episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast, the film produced in me a pretty intense altered state. Because of this, I went back yesterday and saw it again, this time stoned AF.
I can't even begin to explain the hallucinatory effect Robert Eggers' films have on me, and this one really ratchets that up. I know some of you aren't ready to hit a theatre just yet, and I don't blame you. That's not going to stop me from suggesting if you're at all on the fence for returning to the big screen, this would be a pretty great film to do it for.
NCBD:
Here's this week's haul for NCBD:
Yes, I am a glutton. There is a new Amazing Spider-Man and I am going to read it, even though it is probably going to come out 9 times a month.
I know nothing about this, but the title caught my eye, so I'll give the first issue a whirl.
Finally! The now long-awaited finale of the Miller-esque dystopian near-fture TMNT saga!
I've largely missed the boat on Chip Zdarsky, but I'm glad I've gotten in on Newburn from the jump. This collaboration with Jacob Phillips has so far, been a fantastic, terse crime comic.
Still not sure how I feel about Frank Castle becoming The Hand's new "murder messiah" or whatever the hell, but I didn't hate the first issue, so I'm coming back for #2.
Saga! 'Nuff said!
I'm going out on a limb here. When I saw the words "Industrial Horror" on the solicitation for this, the 12 issue of a 16 issue run for the current Swamp Thing iteration, I put it on my list. I'll need to (hopefully) pick up issue 11 as well, as from what I see online, this is the second part of a story called "Jericho's Rose." I know nothing about this current ST title, but again, that cover above combined with those words... I have to give it a chance.
Aaaaannndddd... it appears I've become a pretty big Donny Cates fan and am continuing on with his Thor, especially after reading that, A) this month's issue has Odin's funeral and a Beta Ray Bill story, and B) next month this and Cates' fantastic Hulk series SMASH together.
Playlist:
Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutis Meae
Negativeland - DisPepsi
Calexico - El Mirador
David Bowie - A Reality Tour
Alice in Chains - Sap
Orville Peck - Bronco
Judas Priest - Firepower
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
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Poignant. I've been thinking A LOT about how much I love the woman I'm with, and how, despite the delays, I am looking forward to starting a new life with her OUTSIDE of LaLaLand. It's a push/pull - I'm going to miss a bunch of stuff here, but not enough to stand up against what we have planned for our home.
I'm probably not going to do a full 7-day Prince thing here, because it's been super difficult for me to post seven days in a row for a while. Still, one wasn't enough. I've come to realize that, although I consider Prince a major musical force, and I LOVE some of his music, not all of it is for me. I tend to stop after the 80s - the New Power Generation is all great on paper, but it just doesn't do a lot for me. I think that's the jazz and modern soul vibe that comes into his work at that point. The Prince that really affected me did so because of its strange Punk (more in ethos than sound)/Soul/New Wave hybridization. Nowhere is that more dominant than on the iconic Purple Rain record, which I've argued elsewhere is the Philosopher's Stone album of the 80s. The entire record still blows me away, nearly forty years after first hearing it as a kid. One of the tracks that I've really grown to appreciate is "Computer Blue."
This song always just blows me away. It has such a strange structure, and where it starts compared to where it ends circumvents all logic, but really feels inevitable.
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I was never really much of a Christina Ricci fan - nothing against her, but my first and maybe (?) only exposure to her before was Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, and I hate everything about that movie - except the set design, which isn't nearly enough to save it - so that's probably what sticks in my craw. But Yellowjackets changed that, as her Misty Farmer is a BRILLIANTLY executed character. So, seeing a new Horror movie on the horizon with her kind has me interested:
Man, I hope this as good as it looks. Love the 50s kitsch - which Ricci is just perfect for - juxtaposed with what looks like some kind of slimy Demonic horror. Also, this one's directed by Chris Sivertson, who broke into Horror and cinema in general collaborating with Lucky McKee on the original All Cheerleaders Must Die short back in 2001, and then remade it with McKee in 2013.
Playlist:
The Mysterines - Reeling
Alice in Chains - Sap
Kate Bush - Running up that Hill (single)
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
Prince - Dirty Mind
Prince - Originals
Anthrax - Among the Living
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Sepultura - Quadra
Testament - The Legacy
The Jesus Lizard - Goat
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It can be difficult to maintain enthusiasm, however, persistence and a good attitude pay off.
From 1987's Sign O' The Times, probably my second favorite album by Prince, who died six years ago today.
Something about this album, and this song in particular, really conjures all of the tones and textures, smells and sensual impressions of 1987 to me (it's not exactly readable as 1987 in my head, but when I figure where I was in my life, the specific things I remember about my parents' home at the time, I know it's 1987-1988). There's an underlying tone or ambiance to this track that feels very specific to that time, even though I do not believe I ever heard this song at that time.
This isn't unparalleled. The recording technology of the time - the sonic signatures of microphones, whether you're aware of them or not - definitely inform the era. Also, the keyboard patches, the drum sounds, all of it adds up to a certain era in the recording industry. That's not magick, and it's not B.S. It's fact. I'm assuming that has a lot to do with why this song impacts my memory so drastically. But it makes this album particularly important to me now, so many years later. It's like a time machine, because I can literally smell my parents living room - where I snuck up to watch Friday Night Videos - when I hear this song.
Weird. But cool. Very cool. Thank you, Prince. Whether you realized it or not, you instigated time travel.
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I had no intention of watching this flick until I did. It is fantastic, and probably directly responsible for my purchasing tickets to see Anthrax in late July (if I still live here). Mr. Brown and I saw Anthrax - with opener White Zombie - in 1993 at Chicago's Aragon Brawlroom for the Sound of White Noise tour. This means I've never seen Anthrax with original singer Joey Belladonna.
To say I am excited would be an understatement. It's not going to keep me from moving, but if I am still here - because I'm thinking even if we find something in Tennessee in June, closing will dictate we're still in LaLaLand by the time of this show - I can't wait. At the freakin' Palladium, no less.
Playlist:
Various Artists - Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Led Zeppelin - Coda
Peter Gabriel - So
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Wolves in the Throneroom - Two Hunters
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A little concerned that, along with yesterday's draw, there seems to be some sort of conflict on the horizon.
I've never seen this before, but I'm sure I must have known it existed at some point. I've never been huge on band DVDs - a lot of time they just show you what dildos they actually are. that said, based on all the interviews and whatnot I've read from these guys back in the day, I'm confident enough that Type O won't be one of those, so I may fire this up later tonight.
Thanks to Phil Zig for posting this on his Channel! Give the man a like and a follow if it suits you.
That's going to conclude the Peter Steele week because as it so happens, we have another anniversary to celebrate tomorrow.
Let's perform sacrilege: I'll take this version of any of these three songs over the original Beatles version any day of the week.
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Holy shit, I got chills on that final image. Chills - and I have no attachment or experience with the Jane Foster Thor storyline from the books. Trust in Taika.
NCBD:
Small haul this week.
If that isn't the most Metal cover since Daniel Warren Johnson's Beta Ray Bill series last year, I don't know what is.
This cover has me extremely excited to see where Donny Cates is taking this book.
Speaking of books I need to re-read and catch up on, The Nice House on the Lake is long overdue for me to reconnect. I keep toying with the idea of just waiting until the entire thing is out, but I'm kind of chomping at the bit to see where the story has gone in the last two issues since it returned after hiatus, and also to re-read those first six books and see what I missed.
I finally read last month's We Live: Age of the Palladions White #1 and Black #1. I dig it, might be bowing out, but I dig. I think the thing that endeared the first volume of this one to me was how it began as kind of a Girl with all the Gifts apocalyptic story and then, in the last pages of the final issue, became something totally different. Now that the new paradigm has been established, I'm not as interested as I was before. I'll always be thankful I stuck with that first series, though, just to see the transformation.
Playlist:
Various Artists - Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Sepultura - Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos (single)
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Alice in Chains - Sap EP
Sepultura - Quadra
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I've already been feeling as though there's a shake-up on the horizon. This makes me think it's sooner rather than later.
