I had to pause Butthole Surfers Week for traveling back home to Tennessee, but now that I'm here, let's get right back to the madness. Did you know the original name these guys had was The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole? You probably did, however, it makes me happy just to type that here.
Watch:
I had the chance to re-watch two movies last week that share a love of color and intention.
This was a bit of a distracted viewing; I stumbled across Mandy playing on Shudder.TV and let it roll while I edited last week's episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Murderboard - A True Detective Night Country Discussion, pausing from my duties to soak up key moments. At this point, Panos Cosmatos' sophomore feature is so much a part of me that I've become holographically entwined with it. That is to say, I can watch a little and it contains the entire film.
Ryan Gosling's only Writer/Director feature to date, every time I watch Lost River, my love of the film and its characters deepens. Missi and I did an Elements of Horror on this one, listen to it HERE.
Playlist:
Ready for the World - Oh Sheila (12" single)
Robbie Dupree - Steal Away (single)
Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
The Bronx - (II)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
The trailer for Indianna Bell & Josiah Allen's first feature You'll Never Find Me popped up in my youtube feed thanks to Shudder. While I've only watched the first 16 seconds of this, I instantly knew it was on my watchlist for March.
Hell, this one drops on Shudder March 22 - days before my birthday - and I'm excited enough to know this will most likely be my birthday viewing, which is always something special.
Guess what? In honor of the recent announcement that Matador Records is re-releasing Butthole Surfers' catalog on remastered vinyl, it's Butthole Surfer's Week!!!
Taken from their 1986 album Rembrandt Pussyhorse, "Mark Says Alright" is the first song I remember hearing from Butthole Surfers' back catalog. A few years earlier while still in High School, 1993's Independent Worm Saloon briefly put the Surfer's on Empty-V's radar with the single/video release of "Who Was in My Room Last Night," which was cool despite in no way preparing me for the absolute madness of their early albums. I remember hearing this track on a cassette Mr. Brown brought around to our practice spot above my Parents' garage, a strange little gem that factored into many mind-altered evenings after we finished working on the set list and early demo for Wink Lombardi and the Constellations.
You can order the newly remastered Rembrandt Pussyhorse, along with 1985's Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac and the live PCPPEP 12" directly from Matador HERE. There's even a bundle, which I won't be needing as I already have both Rembrandt and Psychic on vinyl. Can't wait for the re-release of Locust Abortion Technician, though!
Watch:
We finally have a trailer for Harmony Korine's new film AGGRO DR1FT, the one that is shot entirely in infrared.
I know I complain about trailers and try not to watch them. However, there's really no way the trailer for a Harmony Korine movie can tell you what it's about because with some of his films, you watch them and you still don't know what they're about. This one will be polarizing, but aside from Trash Humpers, I don't think I've ever not liked anything by him I've seen, so I'm in.
Playlist:
NIN - Year Zero
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
Pixies - Trompe le Monde
Fugazi - Red Medicine
The Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins
The Knife - Silent Shout
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (pre-release singles)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XVII: The Star
• Five of Pentacles
• Five of Wands
An explosive burst of creative energy will be a struggle to commit to.
Many thanks to Mr. Brown, who clued me in on the existence of Matt Cameron's Gory Scorch Cretins, a solo album with Melvins as his backing band! Apparently, this came about after a Soundgarden tribute where Buzz and the boys did "Spoonman." All of this is news to me, and I've gotta say I was a little confused when I first saw the cover and title; was this a Melvins tribute? Nope. All original stuff, and they're all great. Furthermore, Cameron - long one of my favorite drummers - makes a fantastic singer! Every track on this is great; I chose this one because it reminds me a bit of Urge Overkill, and for some reason, when I played this for the first time yesterday, that really hit the spot as a final track on the album.
Watch:
After picking at it since September - primarily because the show disappeared from the platform I was watching it on and then reappeared on another - I finally finished the second season of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal yesterday.
I watched the last six or so episodes in a fairly tight burst, and this one is really masterfully done. This isn't something most of the world doesn't already know; I'm ten years late to the game on this one, but man, it burns knowing there won't ever be a season four.
One of the charms of the show is, of course, watching Hannibal in the kitchen, so I jumped at the chance to post the video above; special thanks to Moonshine Omega - their YouTube channel is an interesting collection of Food and Bevy-related videos from shows we love (there's a cool one of all drinks and food in Jessica Jones Season One!)
Play:
Having just finished Torture Star/Puppet Combo's Night at the Gates of Hell, I am SUPER happy to get wind of a new game coming our way from them:
As usual, the 80s VHS/Video Nasties influence is a large part of the draw, however, I've really come to prefer Torture Star's games, so I am psyched to be getting another for Switch.
Playlist:
Disappears - Pre Language
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Fear - Live for the Record
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Baroness - Stone
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Swords
• XVIII: The Moon
• Six of Cups
The intellectual benefits of balancing the mental and moral components of a conflict lead to emotional revelation.
No idea what the hell this means at the moment, but as with most of my pulls on this trip (yes, I'm still in L.A.), I'm really just recording all this as data archives for later analyzation.
I'm writing this part of today's post on Tuesday the 23rd. I've been listening to Arab Strap for about the last two hours, so how weird is it that when I clicked over to youtube to find a song to post, I see that a new Arab Strap track dropped two hours ago, and a new album is out Februrary 9th! Holy smokes - Awesome!
You can go HERE to Pre-order I'm totally fine with it 👍 Don't give a fuck anymore 👍 - yes, the emogis are part of the actual title! Check out this cover!!!
Love it! Man, it feels so good to have Malcolm and Aiden back.
NCBD:
The final of my "away pulls." Can't wait to get back home and pick the last few week's of comics up.
So according to Image Comics' website, issue 16 is the Newburn series finale. That's a bummer, but at the same time, the storyline is twisting these characters' lives into such a knot, I'd mentioned recently that I couldn't possibly see how this book could last that much longer. Kudos to the creators for sticking to their guns and telling the story they set out to tell.
We all knew he'd be back, but since Mags destroyed his backup, I'm pretty curious what version this resurrected one will take.
Another series ending soon. Tenement has been a fantastic ride, with the last two issues really pushing the storyline of the overall Bone Orchard Mythos forward. Can't wait to see what's next, but until then, I'm pretty sure these last few issues will be increasingly bizarre and horrific in the fashion only Lemire and Sorrentino can manage.
And yet another BOMBSHELL ending - the news that this title ends with the upcoming issue 150 hit comic news outlets recently. TMNT began again under the IDW banner back in 2012; I picked up the first issue and have enjoyed every single one since. The other end of that big news is that Jason Aaron is taking over the upcoming new title - still under IDW - but what I'm unclear about is if that book will begin a brand new continuity, or continue this one. I hope for the former but also pine a bit for the latter; it would be nice to drop a book from the pull and let this series just sit immortalized in time as the perfect gem it is.
Watch:
Last night I finally got the chance to see Yorgos Lanthimos' new film, Poor Things. Even better, I got to see it with two good friends at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre. I've posted the trailer here previously, so here's a gorgeous poster:
The only other film by Mr. Lanthimos I've seen is Killing of a Sacred Deer, however, that is one of the best "What the absolute F*ck" viewings I've had in the last ten years, so it instantly endeared the creator to me, while also kind of made me a touch afraid of his work. There is something so all-consuming about Deer, that I've kept The Lobster and The Favorite at bay for years.
That changes now.
I put a spoiler-free review up on Letterbxd HERE, but in a nutshell Poor Things is beautiful, odd, perverse, tender, vulgar and a touch transgressive, all coming together to make an utterly unique experience.
Playlist:
Tar - Clincher
Tar - Holding Fast Hitting Long (Live)
The Bronx - V
The Bronx - (II)
The Bronx - (III)
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
Arab Strap - Philophobia
The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Jay Reatard - Singles 06-07
Carpenter Brute - Leather Terror
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
More new Chelsea Wolfe, from the upcoming album She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, out February 9; pre-order HERE. This close to the release date, I'm not even going to listen to this single. I pre-ordered the vinyl and am waiting to sit down and listen start to finish, ripped to the gilly tits on marijuana. Been a while since I've observed that ritual for a new album, would like to get back to it. This seems like a fantastic place to start.
Watch:
I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon this last night, but after seeing the trailer and not being able to find anything on IMDB, I realized there was a link to the full film:
I know nothing of El Maestro, however, the trailer for A24's The Grind is equally one of the most beautiful and disturbing things I've seen in a while, so no doubt I'm watching this as soon as I can.
