New Music from The Kills!!!

 

From the 7" New York/LA Hex. Took me a bit to warm up to this track ("New York" has a more classic Kills sound). You can go HERE and get this one from Domino Recordings. I'm hoping this means there's a new full-length from the band on the way.

I love the video for this one; it's funny how, as happy as I am to have left L.A., and experiencing what a mixed bag it is going back for work two weeks at a time periodically, all the imagery here feels so familiar that it kind of acts as a balm for the piece of me I left behind there. Don't mistake that for homesickness; as I've taken to telling anyone who asks, L.A. is officially a post-apocalyptic city, and living there amounts to little more than sheer madness to me now. That said, it's something, to be able to walk the streets of a SciFi Dystopian version of one of the world's most iconic cities and see it with your own eyes. All of those textures are present in this video, so much so, it almost feels like the band are characters in a movie the song is from. 

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NCBD:

My picks for this week's NCBD!!!

I keep saying I'm going to drop this book, but I'm still here. The previous issue scratched enough of an itch that I can't quite bring myself to jump from ol' Flamehead's ship just yet.

Another year, another Hellfire Gala! Can't wait to see what big changes spring from this one.

Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips's Newburn returns after what feels like a year-long hiatus (might have actually been just that). This is a fantastic crime book, and I'm curious to see where the big picture will go.

After an initial setback getting my hands on the first issue of the latest installment in Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Bone Orchard Mythos, I acquired and read Tenement issue one last week. LOVED it, and now I'm fortunate enough to be able to dig into issue two so soon after what proved to be a very provocative set-up.  

The final issue of The Seasons Have Teeth! This series was a surprise hit with me, and I can't wait to see how it ends. The monsterizing of each individual season has been super cool, and from the glimpses shown across the various covers for issue 4, Winter may be the most insane design of all. 

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Watch:

While I ended up coming down on the "Yes, I like this," side of the fence for David Gordon Green's Halloween Requel trilogy, I will say hearing that his next project was basically doing the same thing for The Exorcist excited me. I've never seen Exorcist Two: The Heretic, and despite trying four or so times, I abhor the monstrosity that is William Peter Blatty's Exorcist III. I know at some point in the early 00s, two cuts of a prequel came out, but I've never bothered with those either. So, being that I have always considered William Friedkin's original cut of The Exorcist the scariest film ever made, I would like to see someone who has proven he can learn from others' mistakes and give us new installments in otherwise lifeless, iconic franchises.

Pretty sure this will be fantastic. I wasn't so sure of that at the beginning of the trailer (yes, I watched it, but I won't ever watch it again, and when it comes on the next time I'm at the theatre, I'll be getting up to leave the room).

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child

Rick Derringer - All American Boy

SQÜRL & Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST

Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

Sigur Rós  - ( )

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

The Kills - New York/LA Hex 7"

NIN - With Teeth

Portishead - Third

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Crystal Castles - II

Chelsea Wolfe - Spun

  

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Card:

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

• VII: The Chariot

• Knight of Pentacles

• XV: The Devil

Emerging victorious from a trying time; sheer force of Will pulls me up and out of the darker side of my brain. A perfect encapsulation of this past Sunday/Monday, when I underwent what I can only describe as a complete Bi-Polar, manic episode. Keep in mind, I've never experienced or been diagnosed with Bi-Polar. I've always considered myself lucky that my brain chemistry, for the most part, has been even. Not sure what happened over the course of those two days, but I think it had to do with too much caffeine and too much social media/phone in general. I'm backing off communicating for a while; this won't affect this blog, but if you know me and I don't answer messages online, don't take it personally. I'm trying to put my head back on straight.

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New Music from Colter Wall!

 

Really digging this new album from Colter Wall that dropped yesterday. Major props to Jonathan Grimm for turning me onto this guy. You can order Little Songs directly from Colter's website HERE.

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Watch:

 I have had a rough time trying to get into Junji Ito's work. I tried the 2000 adaptation of Uzumkai titled Spiral and didn't get very far. I recently attempted the new Netflix series adapting several of Ito's stories, and hated what I saw of it. So many people I know and respect love Ito's work though, so I keep periodically trying. What I need to do is pick up one of the collections of his Manga, however, I have such a pre-existing and totally unfair prejudice against Manga from my five years at Borders Books that I can never get myself to actually buy any of them. Now, there's a new Adult Swim adaptation of Uzumaki coming out, here's the trailer:  

Just based on this 'trailer' - which is really just a scene from the series - I think this may be my entry point into Ito's work. There's something so stark about this; a friend has talked to me at length about the mystery of Uzumaki, and it always sounds fascinating and urgent, which is kind of the vibe I get here. No release date information yet, but Uzumaki will air on Adult Swim, which is of course one of the "Hubs" on Max. 

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Playlist:

Colter Wall - Little Songs

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Rina Mushonga - In A Galaxy

Future Islands - Singles

Godflesh - Purge

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Assembly Line People Program - Eponymous EP

Deadguy - Work Ethic EP

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Drug Church - Hygiene

Aerosmith - Pump

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

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Card:

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

• Knight of Wands - The 

• Two of Swords

• Four of Pentacles

I don't have the perspicacity to interpret this today, so I'm just leaving it here for future reference.

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Pale Dian's Feral Birth

 

Somehow, I totally missed that Austin's Pale Dian released a new record last year. I've had Feral Birth on rotation since discovering it a few days ago, and I really dig it. If you missed out on 2016's Narrow Birth, it is well worth your time, as is all of Pale Dian's music. You can order a digital copy of Feral Birth directly from the band on their Bandcamp HERE, or you can hope their label, Green Witch Recordings, does a re-press of the vinyl. If they do, it should be available at the Green Witch Shop HERE.

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Watch:

Yesterday, HBO dropped a new trailer for the upcoming second season of Álex de la Iglesia's 30 Coins, and it looks fantastic!

I love this show so much, I'm not only excited for the second season to drop in October, but to rewatch Season One beforehand. I can't wait to relive this one. Igelsia's take Horror is unlike anything else I've ever seen, with its often-comedic underpinnings offset brilliantly by the creepiest take on Catholicism I've maybe ever seen. 

 

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Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST

Agnes Obel - Aventine

Pale Dian - Feral Birth

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Mannequin Pussy - Patience

Sandrider - Godhead

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Sepultura - Schizoprenia 

Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST

Beth Gibbons, Polish National Radio Symphony Orch & Krzysztof Penderecki - Henryk- Górecki's Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)

Explode Into Colors - Quilts EP

Pale Dian - Feral Birth

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Exhalants - 

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

            

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Card:

• Queen of Swords - Watery aspect of Air, or the Emotional application of the Intellect

• Prince of Cups - Airy aspect of Water, or the reverse of above, Emotions honed by Intellect

• Princess of Wands - Earthen aspect of Fire, or the physical world as manipulated through the Will

I'm looking at this as a direct commentary on my creative week, which, despite some fairly major breakthroughs plot-wise, has been weak. My Emotions undermine my understanding of what I need to do to achieve my goal, I then turn around and overrule my emotions with logic, but only for a short time before the material world around me sidetracks my work and drains my Will.

I'm trying to sell this week to myself as a "recharge." Let's see if that's true.

 

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Duration:

See what I mean? This is... embarrassing. I knew I didn't clock that many hours this week, but this is insane. Granted, my folks were here for five days and I worked, but still. Inexcusable. 

This is 7/14/23 through 7/20/23. Starting today I need to re-engage.

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I'd Rather Be...

Just watched the final episode of The Bear Season Two. We've been dragging this out because I love it so much, but after doing episodes 8 and 9 Monday night, there was no way we could not do 10 last night. Emotional wrecking ball - good, bad, ugly... ALL the feels. I don't think I've ever seen a show quite like this, and these 'real-time' episodes just blow me away.

I've always loved Pearl Jam's Animal; Out of the 12 (?) tracks on the original release of Pearl Jam's second album Vs., the opening two tracks, Go and Animal, are among the best the band ever did. The album slides into wishy-washy territory from there for me; I dig about three more songs on it, and while I don't necessarily dislike the rest, none of them are in the "I have to have that available to me for when I need to hear it" territory that Ten and those five or so songs from Vs. are. I wish I could say I connected with anything else Pearl Jam ever did after this, but aside from giving a thumbs up to a few songs from the first album with Matt Cameron on drums (2002's Riot Act, I think), I respect the hell out of them and 100% think they tow their own line, but just never really cared. Still, this was PERFECTLY placed in this episode, and I applaud everyone involved in making this tour de force of a show that is as bite-sized as shows tend to come these days (short episodes, short seasons, nothing missing. Trim the fat, Jeff).

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NCBD:

Small Pull this week, but I'm looking forward to both of these titles quite a bit.

I know I'm still relatively new to Something is Killing the Children, picking up with the series around issue #16, but having this recent hiatus in the middle of the current storyline was difficult, to say the least. I've been waiting for this book to come back with a fervor I don't possess very often these days, so I can't wait to read this one. NOTE: That's a variant cover I posted above; almost no way I'm going to end up with that, but still wanted to post it, because hot damn, that's rad!!!

I LOVE that, so far, the X-Men books are sticking to Magneto's death. It's so funny; I've always disliked the Magneto character, and just when he becomes one of my favorites, he's gone. Thus is life, and thus is good freakin' writing. I'm not foolish enough to think ol' Mags will stay dead, but for now, in the era where none of the mutants ever die for good because resurrection is a plot point, having a meaningful, lasting death of a major character is thrilling. 

Also, I really love the 'team' in X-Men: Red. It's not really a team at all, and feels a bit like a super Sci-Fi version of my favorite era of the book, Claremont's Dissolution and Rebirth, when the team took the Reavers' old base in the abandoned town in the Australian Outback. 

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Back:

My good friend Jonathan Grimm sent me a link to a Kickstarter some friends of his are doing. I backed the instant I read the first paragraph of the recap: 

When Black Sabbath (not the Beatles) became the world’s most famous band, the universe was changed, musically and otherwise. Lost arts, like Alchemy, were made common, schools taught about transfiguration and alternate science, Demons were summoned and some stuck around.

Drumsticks of Doom sounds awesome and these guys are in their last 37 hours and they are oh so close, so if you're even remotely interested, go HERE and throw down!

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Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Jim Willaims - Possessor OST

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Agnes Obel - Aventine

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Card:

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

 

• Seven of Swords

• VI: The Lovers

• Seven of Wands

Two sevens and a six, eh? Numbers alone, this shows steps, consecutive or otherwise. Seven of Swords (Intellect) and Seven of Wands (Will) can work together or against one another. Combined with The Lovers, I'd say it's a harmonious union. 

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Blut Aus Nord - Queen of the Dead Dimension

 

Another new track from the upcoming album Disharmonium - Nahab, out August 25th on Debemur Morti; pre-order HERE.

This track reminds me A LOT of the material released on Blut Aus Nord's iconic The Work Which Transforms God. It's not the easiest to listen to at first, because it follows very little of our pre-conceived notions of what a song or music can be. That's exactly why I love this band. Bring on the full album - I want to melt my mind with its non-Euclidean sonic geometry!!! 

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Read:

Issue twenty of the new Fangoria arrived in the mail yesterday; always a good day when a Fango shows up!

Most of the main articles are about films that haven't come out yet; the cover story is on Michael and Danny Philippou's Talk to Me; I bought tickets to see this next Thursday, 7/27/23 and I'm fairly stoked. The fine folks at Beyondfest recently did some screenings with the Directors and they can't stop raving about it, so I'm fairly certain this one will be wonderful. Also featured is Cobweb, which I'm driving into Nashville to see on Saturday. Written by Chris Thomas Devlin and Directed by Samuel Bodin, I have high hopes for this one as well. So those are among the articles I'm saving. My favorite parts of Fangoria, however, are the columns, and in just the three I've read so far, I'm instantly reminded why I love this iteration of the Horror Mainstay Magazine so much.

Long-time contributor Michael Gingold discusses writing a new novelization for the 1980 Video Nasty Nightmare for Severin Films, who also just released a restoration of the film. The resurgence of movie tie-in novelizations is fascinating to me, and although I don't read a lot of them - I burned through Brad Carter's Night of the Demon last year, also from Severin - Nightmare is one I'm curious about. The film is hit or miss with me, despite its aurora of grindhouse sleaze that drips from every nook and cranny, but as with Night of the Demon, I have a feeling I will really enjoy reading the story more than watching the film. Whatever your preferred medium for Nightmares, you can order the restored film HERE or Mr. Gingold's novelization HERE. 

Next up was Barbara Crampton's editorial on theatrical screenings vs. streaming. She makes some points I'd not considered until now, mainly that we are seeing the streamers' film production slowing as people return to the theatre. I don't think we'll ever tip the scales back in the direction they were twenty years ago, however, while bombastic (and to my mind at this point, mildly annoying) Marvel/Super Hero flicks carry the main audience on the big screen, Horror is the quiet RBI batter, in my opinion. 

Finally, Stephen Graham Jones has a fantastic new entry in his Slasher Nation column that traces the origins of the Final Girl all the way up from the Damsel in Distress of the silent era. Easily my favorite piece in the magazine I've read this morning.

 

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Mammon XV - Woe's and Winter's Breath EP

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear Is a Cruel Master

Brainiac - Predator Nominate

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Gism - Detestation

Blut Aus Nord - Queen of the Dead Dimension (pre-release single)

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth

Sepultura - Schizophrenia

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Pachouli Blue

Pale Dian - Feral Birth

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Card:

• V: The Hierophant 

• XI: The Hermit

• Five of Cups - Disappointment

Exciting news will turn out to be erroneous, or at the very least not what it seems at first glance.

 

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Baroness - Beneath the Rose

More new Baroness. New album Stone is out September 15th, pre-order from the band's website HERE. Really cool video for this track, too. Not something I'm prone to complimenting bands on. 

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Watch:

Tubi's Cabin Girl - written by Leslie Beaumont and Rory James Wood and directed by Jon D. Wagner - is FANTASTIC. I posted the trailer a few days ago, so I won't post it here again now, but needless to say, this is a definite contender for my top ten Horror of the year so far. 

Also, despite being on Tubi, there are zero ads. I have a short, spoiler-free review over on Letterbxd HERE. 

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Playlist:

Jogger - This Great Pressure

Baroness - Stone (pre-release singles)

Baroness - Gold and Grey

Tremors - Dark Glasses (single)

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

The Soft Moon - Deeper

Zombi - Shape Shift

Brainiac - Predator Nominate

The Doors - L.A. Woman

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Card:

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

• XL The Wheel

• III: The Empress

• Nine of Swords

Struggling against the tides dictated by Gaia will only lead to self-deception and bad dreams. Whoah, Pretty much a direct answer to a direct question about major upheavals in my life at the moment. Moving my parents from the suburbs of Chicago to Clarksville is the way to go despite reservations I've begun to have, because moving them at this point is just working with, not against, the tides of life. The older we get, the more we need the support of loved ones. My folks are in amazing shape for being in their 80s - I know people in their 60s who look and behave older than them, but despite their continued independence, we all know the best course of action is to get them down here, so we have to stop over thinking things.

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Ruby the Hatchet/Medusa Deluxe

 

Currently unable to extract this song from my head. Not that I'd want to. From Ruby The Hatchet's 2022 album Fear Is a Cruel Master, which you can order directly from the band HERE.

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Watch:

A24 has a pretty interesting new flick coming out in August. From the trailer that dropped two days ago, Thomas Hardiman's feature debut Medusa Deluxe reminds me a lot of Peter Strickland's In Fabric.

 

If you know Strickland's film(s), you no doubt see what I mean. I don't bring this up as a critique; Hardiman's film looks stunning and weird in its own right, and I can't wait to see this when it hits VOD on August 11th. 

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Playlist:

Public Memory - Elegiac Beat (pre-release singles)

Public Memory - Veil of Counsel EP

Sandrider - Godhead

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

QOTSA - Villains

QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Jogger - Nephicide (single)

Colter Wall - Imaginary Appalachia

The Doors - L.A. Woman

            

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Card:

• X: Fortune - Ka

• Queen of Cups - The Watery aspect of Water

• Two of Wands: Dominion

Moving from the well-spring, the idea source into reality can be a challenging process, especially when potentially bogged down by self-doubt; sacrifice that doubt, as it is a comfort. A familiar that only gets in the way of actualization.

It's difficult to pin this to anything specific, however, reading over it again and applying a strengthening force of contemplation - I'm scattered and fighting for clarity this morning - it seems a pretty good idea to juts blanket apply this to everything today.

 

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Duration:

I forgot to post my report this past Tuesday, which judging by the previous week, is the day I chose to check in with this. In an effort to keep myself honest, this report is for the seven days from July 6 to July 12. I actually lost three hours this week.

I feel like I worked more than this, but when next week hits this will look like a marathon; my folks came in yesterday, so between spending time with them and work, I'm losing days here. Luckily I'm off today, and will hopefully be able to carve out some time over the next three days. I'm typing this early because I woke up well before anyone should on a day off, and figured as long as I'm up, I should do some work on the book.

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