New Music From Nabihah Iqbal!!!

Somewhere back in 2017, my good friend and Horror Vision cohost Ray turned me on to Nabihah Iqbal's album Weighing of the Heart. This one blew me away, and I've been following her ever since, waiting for a new album. A few years ago Nabihah spoke on social media about how the studio space she had been using to record that follow-up was broken into and, if memory serves, all her music and equipment was either stolen or trashed. 

My heart broke, but nearly as much as it must have for her.

Now, in spite of the adversity, Dreamer is poised to drop on April 28th courtesy of Ninja Tune, and you can pre-order it HERE. Also, it appears she is touring the U.S., and I am going to try like hell to make it to the Empty Bottle show in Chicago on June 7th, so check those dates by you!

---

---

---

NCBD:

A super light NCBD this week, which is great, as it makes up for all the damn action figures I ordered last week! Hahaha. Here's my single, solitary pick:

I find it interesting to note that, according to the five-issue paradigm SIKTC has demonstrated on all previous trade collections, this new issue would be the fifth and final issue in Volume 5. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the current storyline; in fact, I'm all but positive that won't be the case. Remember - the Archer's Peak storyline lasted for three trades, and now that the action has shifted to Tribulation, New Mexico, things feel way too involved for everything to pan out this early. That said, it's also interesting to note that, over on League of Geeks, where there should be a button to see the next issue in the series, there is not one. I am by no means suggesting this is the end of the series, but Tynion and crew are definitely playing close to their chest, which, considering how visceral this series is, and how absolutely none of the characters feel safe, may be interpreted in a number of alarming ways.
            

---

---

---

Playlist:

Spotlights - Seance EP

The Darts - Snake Oil

Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth

Savages - Silence Yourself

The Cure - Wish

dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer (pre-release singles)

Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R

Blank Mass - Animated Violence Mild

Ministry - Animositisomina

 

---

---

---

Card:

Thoth is calling me back again:

This card 100% describes the feelings I've been having the last few days. I managed to force myself out to sit at my writing spot yesterday. Very little actual writing was accomplished, but as a wise man once told me, even if you don't write anything, you sit there for the duration and stare at the screen - it's more than a lot of people manage. Hopefully, today will be better. 

---

---

---

Screaming Females - Brass Bell

 

It's about time I gave some love to this new Screaming Females record that came out on Don Giovanni Records back in February. Desire Pathway is, as a whole, utterly fantastic, and you can hear that represented as such in no better place than album opener "Brass Bell."

---

---

---

Play:

So, my fascination with Super Cyborg really resonated for about two lonely nights in my LaLaLand hotel room. During that time I managed to beat the game on easy, then on difficult, and finished about another 90% of it on hard. Hadn't played again really until this morning, after my older cat Sweetie woke me up around 3:00 AM and I couldn't get back to sleep. During this time, I finished off that final level and watched the 'expanded' ending - which really only included one extra image. Still cool, and I definitely enjoyed the game. So much so that upon finishing it I immediately fired up another side-scrolling shooter - Big Sugar's Valfaris!

My Horror Vision cohost Butcher mentioned this one to me a year or so ago - in fact, I believe he talked about it on an episode of the show! After hearing Butcher's review, I nabbed a two-pack on sale at the online Nintendo shop that included Valfaris and another heavy metal-fueled side-scroller named Blood, which I haven't been very successful with, thus far. 

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm

Lamp of Murmur - Punishment and Devotion

Brainiac - The Predator Nominate

Calderum - Lord Cramridor

White Hex - Heat EP

Deadguy - Work Ethic EP

The Darts - I Live You But Not Like That

The Bengals - All Over the Place

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

 

This is pretty much a picture-perfect view of things since I returned from LaLaLand. I flew home last Monday, 3/20, and because of the time difference, an 11:55 AM flight put me on the ground after 5:00 PM. A forty-minute rideshare later, I was home. The next day I had off work to have a tooth removed - a 20+-year-old crown had, in my dentist's words, either been put on the wrong way back when or become compromised on a minuscule level, so the tooth beneath had literally rotted out, leaving only dental filler and roots. Following this, I still have a hole in my lower right jaw that requires care and attention, not to mention strategically defined eating. So I spent the first week in L.A. walking nearly 70 miles, barely eating and stressed out, the second marginally decreased on all those things, and then part of the first week home on a liquid or "mushy" diet. Something about all of this has wreaked unimaginable havoc with my entire nervous system. I CRAVE carbs of all kinds. I can't stop buying things online (impulse control=0). I have no concentration. My sleep is a joke worthy of the Joker: two nights ago I slept 9 hours. Last night barely 3. My situation and temperament have changed (Wheel), affecting my entire person (Ten of Cups - the Fiction Suit). It will require a possible rededication ritual - a kind of personal calibration - to get my shit together. 
 

---

---

---

Tension Breaker, Had to be Done!!!

After watching Carl Reiner's 1987 Summer School last night for the first time in a long time, I woke up this morning with the desire to throw on Iron Maiden's seminal Live After Death. There may be no band/album that evokes the 80s for me more than this one. 

I used to think characters like this - although not specifically these two, because they were almost role models to me when I saw this film back around the time it would have first hit VHS or TV, circa 1988-1989; I would have been between 11 and 13 - were nothing more than adult creators not understanding youth culture and thus embarrassing themselves in their approximation. I still think that's the case in some 80s flicks (and beyond, but it was way more noticeable to me as a burgeoning teenager in the 80s), but not all. Chainsaw and Dave are great examples of hyperbole, and man, do they still resonate, especially as an adult obsessed with Horror flicks!

Also of note, and which I would not have been aware of during any other viewing, is foreign exchange student Anna played by Fabiana Udenio from Bride of Reanimator and Shawnee Smith, from the awesome Blob remake just a year later and, eventually, Saw franchise fame. 

---

---

---

Watch:

While scrolling on Shudder last night, I realized Robert Fuest's 1970 And Soon the Darkness hit the streamer at some point in the last month or so. I knew nothing about this one, other than having heard it covered on Colors of the Dark podcast, and boy was a delighted with the experience this film offers.

I have a spoiler-free review up on Letterbxd HERE, but if you haven't the time/gumption to indulge me on that, let me just say now that the restoration on this one is outstanding. Truly a gorgeous and loving attention to detail in bringing a film from 1969 to 2023 audiences.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Unto Others - Mana

Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

Iron Maiden - Live After Death

Damone - From the Attic

Screaming Females - Desire Pathway

Cristobal Tapia de Veer - Smile OST

Fear - I Am A Doctor (single, Live for the Record)

        

---

---

---

Card:

My two-week stint in LA with only my mini Thoth has stoked a taste for this deck once more, so I decided to Pull from my regular Thoth Deck for this Monday morning:

Princess - or what I'm learning to also read as "Page" - of Swords. Going to be an uphill struggle today, huh? I believe it, as I sleep an amazing 9.25 hours from Saturday into Sunday, and a paltry 3 hours and 7 minutes last night.  

---

---

---

Poison Ruïn's Harvest

I am completely new to Philidelphia punks Poison Ruïn, but when this video for Härvest, their upcoming album on Relapse Records showed up in my feed, it kinda blew my mind. We've seen "blackened" versions of nearly everything else (although I'd love to find a band that calls itself "blackened adult contemporary"), why not Punk? And with Poison Ruïn's anti-establishment ethos, we are talking about actual Punk here, insofar as politically minded, not just three-chord monte. Anyway, I dig this quite a bit. Härvest drops April 14th, and you can pre-order it HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

Yellowjackets is back, and K and I are finishing up a rewatch of the first season today and hitting episode one of season two later today. Can't freakin' wait!

If you didn't hear it before and are interested, here's the speculation episode we did on The Horror Vision days before the season one finale. Many of our theories/projections were proven erroneous or obsolete by that finale, but not all of them.

 

---

---

---

Plastic:

Oh, come on! Stop taking my money!

            

The Universal monsters were, like many from my generation, my introduction to "Horror." My girlfriend also has a passion for the Universals, and we kind of bring it out in one another, to the point that one year for our anniversary, I bought us Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein shirts from Fright Rags. 

As Bobby Fingers says in that most recent video, when you find the one, never let them go!

Anyway, my die-hard passion starts and stops with Frank and this fella right here, who is actually probably my favorite of the Universals. Tack on the Lovecraftian twist in the lore that writers like Alan Moore and Stephen Murphy have reintroduced to popular culture over the last few decades, and The Creature continues to captivate me. So you can imagine my joy/chagrin when Jonathan Grimm messaged me with the details about this lovely figure Neca announced. I'm preordering mine from Entertainment Earth, but I'll need to do something really nice for my wallet one day soon.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Talking Heads - Fear of Music

The Police - Outlandos d'Amour

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

           

---

---

---

New Swans!!!

New music from Swans! From the forthcoming album The Beggar, out June 23rd on Young God Records. Pre-order HERE.

---

---

---

Watch:

One of the things that saved my sanity over the last few days of my recent two-week stint in LaLaLand was getting stoned at my hotel one night and discovering Bobby Fingers had released his new Diorama video. The subject of Mr. Fingers' machinations this time?

 

There is a level-up in this video that absolutely blew me away, and that's all I'll say. Well, besides confirming that Bobby Fingers is now my favorite anything on the internet. Watching these literally helped quell the total disgust for humanity that arose in me while stationed in LaLaLand this time.

 

---

---

---

Plastic:

I have to confess that I've become one of the many disillusioned Hasbro Pulse fans. The company's entire manner of doing business is just disgusting. Due to this, and because I've cut my nerd-spending in half, there have been quite a few recent releases from their GI JOE Classified and Transformers lines that I want but have ultimately passed on. That said, here are a few I did allow myself to splurge on:

Copperhead is one of my all-time favorite characters, and this redesign is spot-on perfect in my opinion.

I don't know anything about Range Vipers, and this is obviously a rather "Sci-Fi" figure - an approach I do not normally appreciate in the series, but as a straight-up horrific-looking action figure, this thing is rad AF. Look at that brain!!!

This last one I actually have not yet ordered but am on the fence. One of the issues I (and a lot of other collectors) have with Pulse is their insane price markup. I've had Scrap Iron in my cart on their site for a few weeks now and, although this guy was one of my favorites of the original series' earliest figure designs AND a figure I never had as a child, this figure's pull is strong. I loved the character in Larry Hama's comics - that scene where he blows up the station wagon with the Soft Master, Billy and Mr. Coffee-in-my-Brandy has always stayed with me. That said, when you're at checkout and see a final cost of $57 for one figure, well, that's just INSANE, regardless of whether or not it comes with a 'vehicle' like old Iron's anti-tank drone. Magic eightball says I'll probably end up ordering this, but it irks me nonetheless. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

The Veils - Total Depravity

King Woman - Celestial Blues

King Woman - King Woman on Audiotree Live EP

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Godflesh - Pure Live

The Police - Regatta de Blanc

Silent - Modern Hate

Savages - Silence Yourself

Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything

---

---

---

Card:

From Missi's Raven Tarot:

I turn 47 today, and in light of this event, I wanted to pull a card from Missi's Raven Tarot as a sort of "Card for the year." Makes sense I would see The High Priestess, as I feel like she has been lurking in quite a few of my dailies of late. 

From the Grimoire:

"Can denote change and/or fluctuation. Matter or situation shaped by gracious or pure influences. The Priestess taps into the power of Life and the Universe."

All of which is to say - or at least in my interpretation - I will have a year where I continue to shape my future. Sounds boring, but as anyone who has changed their life for the better multiple times and is generally unafraid to do so at the drop of a hat, it's not easy. Nor is continually affecting my own creative force, honing these lumbering documents of a novel that is hard A.F. to write, but ultimately rewarding A.F. when it begins to come together.

Here's to the voyage to 48!!!

Dead Guy's Work Ethic

I received a spectacular early birthday present in the mail from Mr. Brown yesterday - Dead Guy's Work Ethic E.P. I first discovered Dead Guy back in 1995 when Victory Records released their Fixation On A Coworker LP. I was writing for Subculture magazine back then, and somehow became their default Victory Records guy, so I received all the promo CDs the labels sent in. I did not care for most of the bands, but Dead Guy... they kind of blew me away right off the bat. 

Funny thing about this live EP record, this track labeled as "Druid" is actually "Extremist" or "The Extremist", one of my favorites from that Fixation LP.  Song still shreds some serious face, and it reminds me I still need to track down that Dead Guy documentary Vinegar Syndrome's Partner label has for sale on their site/app. 

---

---

---

Watch:

The verdict is out on Shudder's upcoming From Black. The trailer - I watched about half, and it sold me - looks like it can go either way, good or bad.

 

April 28th, we'll see. I love some of the imagery here, but certain elements of how this trailer is cut make me wonder if this will just be a rehash of what we've seen in some better movies of late.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Spotlights - Seanace EP

Spotlights - Love & Decay

Cristobal Tapia de Veer - Smile OST

Dead Guy - Work Ethic EP

Dr. John - Ske Dat De Dat

The Veils - ... And Out of the Void Came Love

Sunn O))) - Domkirk

The Police - Synchronicity

King Woman - Celestial Blues

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

One of the rare moments where I'm going to read a card at face value - I'm making some snap judgments about people in my life and it's leading to an uncomfortable mental space.

Spotlight on Stephen King's Fairy Tale

 

Really digging this new EP from Spotlights. Order from Ipecac Records HERE.

 

---

---

---

NCBD:

As of Monday, I'm finally back from my two weeks in LaLaLand. Trapped up in West L.A./Santa Monica at the Sonder hotel at Found, I didn't get a chance to hit up my beloved Comic Bug until my final day in town, but I saw some old friends and got to pick up a few books that weren't on my list. Also, will be returning to Rick's Comic City today to grab my Pull-List books from the last two weeks, so here's everything I will have acquired starting back on NCBD 3/08/23:

This Week's Pull 3/22/23:

Last week's Pull, 3/15/23:

This, the penultimate issue of Hulk, is one I actually missed out on; I never added to my Pull, and The Bug was sold out, so I'll have to find it online somewhere.

The only one I've read at the point of reading this, I started out feeling pretty non-plussed, but ending up really liking where this second issue of Immoral X-Men went. I don't love Sins of Sinister, however, I'm reading through it simply to see the pretty big-swing ideas the X-writing stable are taking with it.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this cover!

Two Weeks Ago, 3/08/23:

Based on the Master of Reality and now Back in Black homage covers, I am SO hoping they do one for Mercyful Fate, Don't Break the Oath on a future issue of this series!

I'm glad this regular X-Men book isn't adhering or pausing for Sins of Sinister. With issue 19's start of a Brood-based story, I thought I was going to roll my eyes, however, the entire set-up was fantastic (the Nowhere thread is amazing!). I'm really looking forward to this one!

---

---

---

Read:

While in LaLaLand, I had a couple of occasions to catch up and hang out with my good friend Chris Saunders, formerly of The Thirsty Crows, and my co-host on the hiatus-ending-soon podcast A Most Horrible Library. Chris gifted me a beautiful Hardcover copy of Stephen King's newest novel Fairy Tale, and at ~120 pages into its ~600 pages, I'm hooked!

I haven't read a new King novel since 2010's Doctor Sleep (thanks to Mr. Brown!) and reading Fairy Tale makes me remember how much I adore the man's prose. I'm realizing now that one of the everlasting endearments of King's mind and how it translates to the page is he writes about a world that, while modern and incorporating modern elements (the internet, online shopping, current cultural establishments), King's world still feels very much like the world I grew up in, the one-two weeks in LaLaLand convinced me did not exist at all anymore. That's a very welcome refresher at the moment, as it gives me hope humanity isn't as far gone as it often feels when in a high-population center or tooling around online.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth

Screaming Females - Desire Pathways

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

SQÜRL - Silver Haze

The Police - Regatta de Blanc

Burial - Untrue

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right To Children

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye

Spotlights - Seance EP

Spotlights - Love & Decay

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Emotional security leads to an Emotional breakthrough that ultimately could turn into a profitable partnership.