Saturday, November 28, 2015

Man Vs. Rock...


...is the indie comic that has had Shawn and Joe laughing their f&*king asses off all week. Wanna know more? It's all in this week's Thee Comic Column over on Joup.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

David Bowie - Black Star



Mr. Brown sent me this at least a week ago and I've only just gotten around to watch it. New Bowie is always a good thing, and with what I keep hearing about the upcoming album of the same name (Out Jan 8th, 2016) being the 'weirdest' Bowie record in a long time, I for one am more than eager to have this in my hands.



Some observations:

I LOVE the return to the sax. Saxophone was once synonymous with Bowie - for me at least - and I feel like he hadn't really found a way to incorporate it into the new sound he's been toying with since 2005's Reality. No longer the case. Hopefully there'll be more on the record.

I also LOVE the return to utilizing synths and some of the overall aesthetic he experimented with in the 90s during his "industrial" phase.

This is weird as fuck and I LOVE it.

Indie Comic Descent of the Dead...




... is the topic on tap in this week's Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

X's For Eyes Pre-Order


Yet another reason to celebrate.

Laird Barron has a new novella coming out in a few weeks and you can pre-order it here. Over the course of the previous four years Mr. Barron has become my favorite writer, a man whose words move me in ways that feel ancient and endless. Over the course of four anthologies*, one novella and one novel he has become the first author in years that I re-read constantly. His loose-knit mythology has burrowed its way into my brain and I think that would make him happy. Surely it makes me happy, when it doesn't make me all-out paranoid that the eye of Shiva is staring back at me from the other side of some dark cosmic mirror that is probably focusing on me even as I write this...

If you don't believe me go here and, after subscribing to an amazing podcast, take forty minutes or so to listen to Mr. Barron's short story Frontier Death Song. I've listened to it countless amounts of time and it never becomes less affecting. Read by the inimitable David Robison, this is the perfect introduction to the cosmic pulp horror of Laird Barron's work.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

WEEN's BACK!!!



The best news EVER came down the pipes yesterday and I've been too busy swooning to post anything about it.

WEEN IS BACK TOGETHER!!!



Now, it remains to be seen if Boognish can go home again after all the static, but let's fucking hope so. I seriously had tears in my eyes every time I've listened to them since they broke up.

Interestingly enough, this past Saturday, two days before the announcement I spent the whole day breaking in a new Ween shirt Mr. Brown gave me a while back and that of course meant I also spent the day listening to them. All day. All night. I now kind'a feel as though I may have done something of a 'rain dance', cuz within a day or two Mr. Brown shot me a text with the announcement and my happy circuits exploded all over the got'damned place!



Sunday, November 15, 2015

Re-Reading the Age of Apocalypse...



... is the topic of what will no doubt be a much longer conversation over the coming months in Thee Comic Column, over yonder on Joup. Part one is this week's column.

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!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

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. 

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

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."

Monday, November 2, 2015

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).

Sunday, November 1, 2015

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.