Lake Trout - Her

This band blows me away. It's been a while since I've listened to them, apparently making up for it by listening to Another One Lost for hours on end today.

Placebo - Meds

I missed the boat on this one. Meds was in my collection for sometime but not by my intentions directly. I'd given it a half-attempted spin or two and not found the band to my liking - at the time - and that was that. And of course, the reason why I generally do not get rid of CDs is that A LOT of music is very time-and-place insofar as how you take to it. Murphy's Law dictates that if you do get rid of an album you have a pretty good chance of getting into it shortly thereafter. And that's just what happened here. My friend Katie's pick for the Joup Friday Album this past week was Meds and in reading her write-up and throwing the album on my headphones while at work on Friday I literally fell in love with it. First two songs gave me chills. Still do, two days and about six listens later. And yeah, Meds is no longer in my collection so I will have to be re-buying it. #don'tsellyourmusicbuildalifelibrary



I absolutely understand why previously I did not like this band. It's somewhat ineffable, however after really thinking about Placebo's sound in the context of the time this record hit I think I've come to some fairly weighty conclusions. There's no denying my initial prejudice has to do with the fact that Meds specifically and the band's sound in general has a lot of the trappings that bigger-market rock bands trafficked in during the early oughts. The voice and the way it sits in the mix, the guitar tone, the slightly narcissistic point of view and the underlying programming that gives the songs a sort of slick, Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals three times removed feel is, to me, indicative of this era of rock music, where many of the bands that blew up to varying degrees just generally leave me cold and suspicious of contrivance. That said, I think a lot of what I just described is actually the product of one particular metric that I can't really prove as anything other than a hunch - the fact that beginning with the late 90s and traveling on into the early 00s a lot of the bands who rose to prominence were helmed by the first generation of artists to do so having been raised on meds for most of their lives. The sound I describe above has a slightly overly-polished veneer - hence the suspected contrivance - because that's what the filter of meds does, it polishing reality. That's what a lot of that era's music is about, coping with that, and it makes sense that would leave its sonic fingerprint on the music. Again, I can't prove it, but Meds specifically would definitely appear to add credence to my thinking.

What say you (the Universal You, that is?)

Drinking with Comics #27

Issue #27 of Drinking with Comics is up! Special guests Pinguino Kolb, Robert Walker (Cuddli) and Damphyr (The Drunken Fandom) discuss dating in the geek world, fan-inspired cocktails and a whole bevy of books including but not limited to The Weirding Willows, Dave Crosland's Ego Rehab, Rat Queens, Always Raining Here and Skottie Young's I Hate Fairyland. Check it out and if you dig it please subscribe to our Youtube channel!

The Unkindness of Ravens

This looks amazing. I'm going to support the kickstarter after I get paid and I'm suggesting anyone else who digs this do the same. 

Chicago Rot

My friend Lee is in this movie. I haven't seen it yet, just heard about it tonight. Watched the trailer. It freaked me out.

That's a gooood thing.

From the youtube description, which reads like goddamn poetry:

"After years of rotting in Joliet, Les, a wrongfully imprisoned street legend known as "The Ghoul", is released into a mad search through Chicago's back alleys for the man who slaughtered his mother and robbed him of his soul. Aided by enigmatic benefactors, he must delve beneath the city into a modern labyrinth of gutters whose tendrils have grown deep while he was gone.

What unfolds is a desperate tale of brute force tragedy set in the supernatural underworld of Chicago, where heroes are reduced to horror-shows, villains dream of their own demise, and good and evil prove to be antiquated concepts."

Preacher Teaser

No idea how to react to this. Looks to be remarkably different than the book, which is possibly my favorite comic series of all time. Will I watch this?

... um... I don't know.

I still have NO faith in AMC after the walkin' dead, probably my second favorite comic series of all time and one that they completely fucking ruined. So... I just don't know. But here it is, complete with a Cassidy that appears to be more Irish redneck than punk. Oi vey...

Greg Rucka & Nicola Scott's Black Magick...

...is the topic of discussion in last Saturday's edition of Thee Comic Column.

I LOVED this book, especially in its big, beautiful over-sized magazine format.

Ghost Performs Circe on Colbert

I've never seen any of the shows Mr. Colbert has hosted before but I LOVE his ice cream. Perhaps Ben and Jerry can give Ghost a flavor as well? Something like Chocolate-covered peanut butter crosses?

Just a thought.

New Coen Brothers!

Hail Caesar!, the new Coen Brothers flick with an amazing cast. Can't wait for this; I've always felt that, although I pretty much love every movie they've done, the Coen's really excel when working on period pieces from the early days of our modern society. Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are, in my opinion, amazing pieces of cinema and Hail Caesar! looks to be right in this wheel house, with a great foundation of the talent they work so well with (Clooney, Frances McDormand) alongside powerhouse talent (Tatum and Scarlett).

Faith No More - Sunny Side Up

\

Just made it around to watching this. Made me smile.

I'm very behind on media, but now that I've had something of a sabbatical (and a pretty gnarly Halloween weekend) I have the headspace to catch up on some of the stuff I've missed.

Drinking w/ Comics #26 - the Halloween Issue!

Mike and I really get into swapping scary comics recommendations: Mike Mignola's Jenny Finn and Batman/Lovecraft mash-up The Doom that Came to Gotham; Tomb of Dracula; Jason Martin and Bill McKay's Night of the 80s Undead; Alan Moore's Swamp Thing; Joe R. Lansdale's Jonah Hex and The Drive In, and the Vertigo Comics' adaptation of William Hope Hodgson's insanely creepy House on the Borderland it's kind of like Fall of the House of Usher with Malevolent Pig monsters!). Also, we drink Ninkasi Brewing's Dawn of the Red India Red Ale and their Sleigh'r Imperial Pumpkin Ale and talk a bit about the new Marvel re-launch.

James O'Barr's tragically beautiful comic The Crow...

... is the topic of this week's edition of Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang's Paper Girls has arrived...

... and it's the topic of my weekly comic book rant over on Joup in this week's edition of Thee Comic Column.

New Besnard Lakes!

I always love typing the three words that comprise the title of this post. Because a new record from The Besnard Lakes is a joyous thing to me and they never disappoint. Listening to this makes me reflect on what an awesome arc this band is riding, and I am as sure that I'm going to find it hard to wait until 1/22 when A Coliseum Complex Museum is released on Jagjaguwar as I'm sure it will make my top ten of next year. That's how good the Lakes are - the time for drawing up that list is still fifteen or so months away and I'm already reserving one of those year-end slots for this record.

Alice Glass - Stillbirth

I was late finding out Alice Glass left Crystal Castles. I had mixed feelings about it. Crystal Castles II is, in my opinion, one of the best records of the first decade of this century. The follow-up still has not opened to me and I am unsure if it is me or if it's just not really that good (even though I always assume it's me in situations like this where an artist has previously proven themselves, after three years I'm leaning toward the latter). Ethan Kath, the other half of CC released a new track as well and it was that track that I heard first. It kinda just sounds like he found a new girl - Edith - to sing like Alice. I might be wrong here, but that was my first impression and I've not been back since for reappraisal. Alice Glass's Stillbirth however is new ground for her, and I'm digging it and the message she released with it (read it on PiFk here) so although I'm waiting for more from both sides, at this point I'm more interested in Ms. Glasses direction.



And just for old times sake, one of my favorite CC songs from II. Well, on that record they're all my favorite, so this is just the one that fits my mood more at the moment. This song sounds like being drugged out and wandering the hazy, recessed lighting corridors of a hotel at 2 A.M. That's not what I'm doing, but it's my mood.

RIP Catherine Coulson

My log is sad. We will miss you Catherine Coulson, you and your Log...

What You Can Find When You're Not Looking...

As good as I can be burrowing in and finding obscure music in the worlds of Rock, electro, Metal and Avant Garde, the two areas of music I dig that I have trouble finding a foot in the door with is the more obscure, rootsy Soul and Gospel music of mid-twentieth century America. I always get a twinge of jealousy when I hear something in a movie or find it mentioned in a book, find it and then realize that other than that particular piece or artist, I'm stumped. A lot of this is just a facet of inkling and time, as I'm sure if I really burrowed into a group like the Del Fonics - who I was formerly introduced to in Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown - falling into the associated chains of wikipedia pages associated with them and their producers, etcetera, I'd probably come up with some more artists to sate my thirst for dusty old Soul. That hasn't happened though; I'm overly self conscious in these areas and I tend to require gatekeepers. Irvine Welsh's novel Skag Boys turned me onto the tradition of Northern Soul - which previously had simply been the name of my favorite album by The Verve - and newer artists like Jamie Lidell, Charles Bradley and Alabama Shakes make access to the genre's evolution easier than digging, but it's just not the same thing, finding a new artist or finding an obscure, older artist. And really, I'm not even addressing Gospel here, as so much of that isn't easily accessible. In the 60s and 70s almost anyone can and did press records - you see evidence of this in thrift stores all the time - but today? Well, today we have youtube, which I am seriously beginning to believe is the collective consciousness of the human race made accessible. 'Cuz everything is on it. Case in point, Pastor T. L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir. Listen to this, it's awesome! But how did I find the music of a neighborhood Chicago Pastor and his Choir? How did I pull that from the din?

I found this via a gatekeeper: the cool, hazy sample that ends the Algiers record? It's from this. I love the way that sample ends the record; it has a cosmic, time-machine flavored influence that reminds me a lot of the looped sample that ends Zen Guerilla's cosmic masterpiece Positronic Raygun.

And then once I started researching off the Algiers sample I found that, of course, this is another case of the absolutely amazing Light in the Attic Records has put out some of this man's music.

Yes, that's Isaac freakin' Hayes w/ Barrett. ISAAC HAYES!!!

I need to remember that: Light in the Attic. Always check back in with them. Get on their mailing list (why didn't I do that right after the first Black Angels E.P.? Or after the Louvin Bros. Or the Donnie and Joe Emerson record?

(Pause while I actually go do that...)

Then it gets even weirder. Go to the short bio for Pastor Barrett on LITA's site, right here. Being from the South Side of Chicago I remember when these pyramid schemes were big news. Crazy how something like my favorite album of the year so far - that immaculate Algiers eponymous - can bring something from so long ago back around again.