I did not find out about Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie's new band Mrs Piss until a week or two ago, and since, their debut Self-Surgery has become a record I simply cannot turn off. Available on the always great Sargent House, you can order the record HERE.
Watch:
Having just seen the original Castle Freak for the first time within the last year or two (Thanks, Joe Bob!), I'd read about Barbara Crampton's work producing a remake and became immediately interested. It's not often one of the original cast members in a seminal film take on such a labor of love, and the fact that the cast member in question is possibly the greatest Scream Queen of all time only adds to my interest. Why remake this film? I can only assume Ms. Crampton has good reason to throw her hat into the project, and judging by the trailer, we should have a new iteration of Stuart Gordon's somewhat odd modern take on the H.P. Lovecraft classic in just a few short weeks.
NCBD
First, the return of Rick Remender and Jerome Opena's dark fantasy epic has become even more exciting now that they've announced Seven to Eternity will be ending in just three short issues. I love this book, and I've missed it incredibly.
We Live is an Aftershock book getting a lot of press. On a whim I grabbed the first issue last month, dug it quite a bit, and now I'm hooked. Love this cover on issue two.
A 'zombie book' that is very much not about zombies, Dead Day continues to make me smile.
Die! Die! Die! may be a book I've continued to read out of inertia, but that doesn't mean I'm not still enjoying it. "GI Joe but totally nuts" is really the only way to describe this one.
I mistakenly never added Jason Howard's Big Girls to either one of my pulls at Atomic Basement or The Comic Bug, and as such, it has been a pain in the arse to find since I picked up the first issue. If I hadn't stumbled across a copy of #3 last week, I would have probably given up and waited for trade, but since I'm only missing #2 now, I'm making the attempt to go monthly again, just to support Howard, whose art I adore.
And finally, this is a new one I'm considering picking up. A sequel to Vault Comics' Fearscape, which I did not read but keep hearing good things about, I thought I might grab the first issue of A Dark Interludeand the Fearscape trade.
This is definitely the biggest NCBD is a while. I still have storage concerns, but they've kind of taken a back seat to 'the passion' again.
Playlist:
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery
The Clash - London Calling
The Bronx - Eponymous (I)
Fleet Foxes - Shore
The Foxies - Anti Socialite (single)
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Card:
Really, not necessarily a new journey or undertaking, as a direct indictment of how fucking lazy I have been of late. I just can't seem to get my discipline with writing back online at the moment; it's been a struggle now for the last few months, and I really need to do something about it
Well, we pulled the bandage off last night and finished Halt and Catch Fire. Easily one of the best shows I've ever experienced, and it really reminded me a lot of Six Feet Under, which K has never seen. We're going to move that one up the list, however, now is the time to really double-down on The Boys. I watched Season One last year without her, so this year I've been slowly rewatching that with her in preparation for moving into Season Two. Can't wait, even if the pop culture saturation point with it is riding an annoying level of saturation.
Rewatching Six Feet Under scares me a little bit. I loved the show, however, by the end it had very much changed the way I looked at Death in a tangible way, and with it, how I look at life. Not necessarily bad, but from about halfway through the second to last season, the show really gets heavy, and I'm not sure I can take the emotional beating until at least after November (and maybe not then, depending on how things go).
NCBD
There's a number of great things out today:
The Boys: Dear Becky Issue 5, just in time for my engagement with the show. This book was obviously brought into existence to coincide with and capitalize on the show, however, I'm fine with that. Ennis is telling a story and flexing his absurdity muscles, so it's about what I would have expected. I don't love it, but I didn't love the entire comic series either - only the first six issues and the last year's worth, with the Butcher mini-series, included in that. Those were the facets of the saga I thought were fantastic. The rest had its high points but was a little too much of Ennis trying to out Preacher Preacher, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
I love this book, however, after reading 1-5 in a straight shot last month, there are some serious hinks to the writing. Usually, art will not make up for that in my book. With Mercy, the problems don't outweigh the good, especially with this art. It's fantastic.
Really digging this series so far, and meaning no disrespect whatsoever to Jacob Philips or Chris Condon, it fills the hole left by Criminal's end quite nicely.
Playlist:
Deftones - Ohms
Dame Fortune - Am I a Warrior (single)
Molchat Doma - Etahzi
Not a heavy music day yesterday, because over on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, Mr. Ellis has begun reading his newest novel in a serialized fashion. He hasn't given a title, and it wasn't until this newest episode - the first hour or so of which is the reading (followed by a fantastic interview with Hollywood Legacy Executive Peter Bart) - that Ellis even quantified that that's what he's doing - serializing his new novel. The story is a purported memoir, though at this stage I'm fairly certain it's about as much of a memoir as Lunar Park is. That's fine - Lunar is my second favorite novel of all time, right behind Gatsby, and I find Ellis' ability to sync real life with narrative both riveting and powerful.
The book has to do with something terrible that happened to a teenage Bret Ellis and his close friends 1981 in Los Angeles, and how those events line up with a serial killer dubbed "The Trawler" who stalked LA at the time. Ellis has said everyone's names have been changed, and even the killer's nome de plume is made-up, although was bandied about early on in this larger than life horror's earliest days of activities.
I'm fascinated, and can't wait for more. You can click over to Ellis' Patreon HERE to sign up and get the podcasts. Worth every dime (roughly $3 a month I believe for the silver tier, which is what I have).
Well, I would have never expected to be posting a track off Jeremiah Sand's debut album Lift It Down, out October 30th on Sacred Bones Records. You can pre-order this psyche-folk insanity HERE.
I'll probably be skipping this one, however, I definitely appreciate the ridiculous level of detail that's gone into pulling this from the fictional world of Mandy into our own.
NCBD:
Not a lot out today. However, chomping at the bit for this one after just reading issue two a week or so ago:
Next, there's a couple new books I'm curious about (I know, I know. Wasn't I the guy saying I was done buying monthlies just a few, well, months ago? Yeah). First up, Lonely Receiver from Aftershock comics. Written by Zac Thompson, one of the two writers of Her Infernal Descent, which I loved, and art by Jen Hickman. This one sounds really interesting and taps into something I've been meaning to write a story about myself: AI life mate dolls.
From the solicitation:
"Catrin Vander, a lonely video producer, buys an Artificial Intelligence partner that's meant to bond for life. After ten years together, her holographic wife suddenly discon-nects without a warning. The breakup drives Catrin to the point of near insanity. She's alone for the first time in years and reeling from a loss she can't comprehend. Set in the new future, drenched in pastels and sunshine, LONELY RECEIVER is a horror/breakup story in five parts."
Sound good? Yeah, I think so, too.
Finally, I've always been hesitant to engage with any of the newer iterations of the John Constantine books that DC has put out over the years. Constantly starting/restarting, renaming, endless turnover on of the moment creative teams - what's all of it mean for a character as old and storied - and beloved - as John Constantine? Usually just a watering down of his legacy.
That said, I have an interesting feeling about this one, perhaps based on the facts that, A) they've gone back to calling the book Hellblazer, B) it's a limited series, C) Darick Robertson.
Playlist:
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Windhand - Eternal Return
Card:
Four chapters into Shadow Play Book Two, and yeah, it's a new journey alright. This is the first book I've written off an outline - a comprehensive outline whose word count may actually end up rivaling that of the finished product. I've been having back issues, so I'm by the time this post goes up, I've probably taken the day off work and am hip deep in writing.
A couple years ago, I caught Sumac live opening for Converge. Fantastic band. I kind of forgot about them after that, but with this lead track off their forthcoming album out October 2nd on Thrill Jockey - Pre-order HERE - I'm all in.
**
NCBD:
Finally! We haven't been waiting for this new Brubaker/Phillips graphic novel for very long, but it's felt like a millennium! These guys are aces, and if you subscribe to Brubaker's email newsletter, you will have seen his announcement that they are releasing three original graphic novels over the next year as part of a new series. He hasn't released all the details yet, but he did include a few pages of the finished product, and it looks fantastic. Of course.
I'm a bit on the fence with this one, but I'm absolutely down to give Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips' That Texas Blood the benefit of a few issues to lock into place.
I LOVE this cover! So old school, black and white TMNT. This book just gets better and better, breaking new ground with world building no longer beholden to the old iterations.
**
Playlist:
Mitch and Ira Yuspeh - Seven Doors of Death OST
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
JK Flesh - Depersonalization
Baroness - Gold and Grey
Blueneck - Repetitions
Primus - Frizzle Fry
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
**
Card:
I was super excited to draw a card this morning from my new deck, one my good friend Missi colored for me. The deck is just the Major Arcana, but that's super cool. I know a few people who only draw with the Majors, and I've kind of always wanted a deck to do that with. Broadstroke answers can be insanely helpful.
Of course I shuffled the hell out of the deck - I could feel the energy Missi put into these things - and what card flips out on its own and lands face up in front of me? The Fool, of course, because I'm beginning a new journey with a new deck. Not replacing my beloved Thoth, but adding to it, in a way.
I've never been one to have multiple decks, but this is special and I love it. Look at how gorgeous this card is! I'm christening this deck the Raven Deck, after Missi.
Some time back in late 2018, my good friend Jesus gifted me a Blu Ray copy of the film Summer of 84. At the time when I first watched it, the film seemed a little too derivative of Stranger Things. Kids on Bikes felt like it was becoming the new Steampunk, i.e. ubiquitous to the point of losing me. Still, I ended up digging the movie that first time.
Yesterday, I came home from work and, as has become my custom, cuddled up with my cat on the couch to take a nap. I generally put Shudder TV on, find something mildly interesting, and nod in and out while I watch. This has been a great way for me to see a lot of films I can't commit to in the course of my regular, evening viewing. Anyway, 84 came on and I fell into it. I felt pretty much the same for most of the movie, and then the last ten minutes or so happened and I finally 'got' what the filmmakers were trying to do. Much like Twin Peaks purposely took on the language of the night time soap opera in order to completely subvert it, Summer of 84 puts on a Stranger Things costume just to turn it on its head at the end. Chilling is the only word I have for it, especially after seeing on Reddit where in a post-screening interview, the directors - François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell - stated they would never make a sequel because - and this is me quoting someone paraphrasing - "The terror was from the ending as it was, and to make a sequel would take away some of the effect."
That's fucking hardcore.
**
The new issue of Fangoria arrived this past Thursday. Look at that cover! The cover story is based on a comic strip Patton Oswalt sent in to Fango in 1984, and the print the entire thing. It's fantastic.
With information about Fangoria's parent company Cinestate coming out on how they ignored one of their producers who sexually harassed women on set coming on top of former Fango head of acquisitions being accused of harassment, it seems that everyone is jumping ship from the magazine.
Not me.
I don't really understand cancel culture in general, but this is insane. The moment the Cinestate story broke, Fangoria Editor in Chief Phil Noble, Jr. posted that Fangoria was looking for new owners, and the head of acquisitions in film had been on board for probably a year since coming over from the same position at Dread Central's film division. He stepped down from Fango immediately, and from what I've seen, there's no suggestion that anyone at Fangoria even knew about his actions. So why then did Shockwaves, Mick Garris, and a host of others dump their association with the beloved Horror mag? Why did one of my favorite new authors not only pull his upcoming book from Fangoria's publishing imprint, but also post a letter to his social media saying that although he has never sexually abused or harassed anyone, he realizes this may have hurt people and he apologizes (I think that's what it says. It's really confusing)?
This apologizing for for nothing is a panicked overreaction in the age of the SJW and cancel culture, and I think it sucks. People are pulling their association with the magazine as a preemptive strike, which is seems more than a little like being guilty until proven innocent. Until someone shows me Fangoria itself actively ignored or fostered this stuff, I'm sticking in as a fan.
The re-launch has been such an amazing vessel for critical and thought-provoking Horror discussion. Much more than the later days of the original magazine's iteration. I never consistently read any of the horror mags when I was younger, but I'd pick them up on occasion and, through the 00s when I worked at Borders, read them on break. By that time, Fangoria paled in comparison to Rue Morgue, in my opinion. No longer the case. Rue Morgue and Horror Hound are still great, but the new volume of Fangoria is fantastic from an academic perspective, and I think everyone who is afraid of the SWJs swooping down on them are going to regret their actions, especially if it tanks the magazine. If you didn't do anything wrong, you didn't do anything wrong. Period. I reject absolutely the idea that everyone on Earth with a penis is a rapist by default, and although I absolutely believe predators of any kind need to be stopped, outed, and punished, guilt by association is not a good thing. One of my closest friends in high school turned out to be a murderer and rapist, and at the time that came out, a lot of people cast suspicions and, on a few occasions, borderline accusations at those of us who hung around him. Although he was my friend, I didn't know what he was capable of, and I certainly did not condone or take part in it. That's the example I use as my guide.
**
Playlist:
Brainiac - Bonsai Superstar
The Chameleons UK - Strange Times
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
Le Matos - Summer of '84 OST
Zombi - Shape Shift
**
Short story almost finished, time for something new.
A few days ago, Doves released the first track from what will eventually be their looooong awaited fifth album. "Carousel" is the first since 2009. I'm a huge fan of these guys, in particular, 2000's Lost Souls. The song "Rise" from that album has somewhat of a recurring role in the novel I just finished writing, which will be out later this year, and which I still don't have a title for. Serendipitous then, that this new music drops when I'd gone back into something of an extended Doves mood.
**
Already primed for another narrative podcast to listen to via The Magnus Archives - which I mentioned here a few weeks ago - my good friend Missi recently turned me on to Qcode's Borrasca. Cole Sprouse stars and produces - you might recognize the name as the actor who plays Jughead on Riverdale. While I've never been able to get into that particular show - despite my curiosity about its second season having what I've read described as a 'Giallo' thread in the plot - I'm extremely impressed by everything about Borrasca. At first it seemed a little too "Young Adult" for me, but that isn't the case at all as I've gotten through the first five weeks of what I'm assuming is the first season that's dropping now, new episodes every Monday.
**
NCBD - nice to have this back, eh? I've got some books this week, and one from last week to grab. Here is what's going to be my haul tomorrow:
So nice to get back into this one. There was a moment a few issues back where I thought Gideon Falls might have lost me. No dice. I'm so ready to go deeper into this world:
A new one with art by Jacob Phillips, son and collaborator of one half the dynamic crime fiction duo Brubaker and Phillips. Very much looking forward to this, and I'm hoping for more of that substantial backmatter that makes these books well worthwhile reading month-by-month.
Waiting four months or so since TMNT 104 has been difficult. That issue set up such a rich new world for the brand that I'm even more excited than before with where this title could go. Also, mutant metal bands? Fuck yes!
**
Now that Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In is over for another year, what the hell will I do with my Friday nights? Well, I recently signed up for HBOMax, and despite my annoyance that it does not work with my firestick, K and I decided to make Fridays Turner Classic Movie night, because TCM is one of the properties lumped in with the sub. There are a lot of movies on there, and being that K is a HUGE fan of old Hollywood, this is perfect.
**
Playlist:
Perez - Les vacances continuent (single)
Deafheaven - Black Brick (single)
Deafheaven - From the Kettle Onto the Coil (single)
Apparat - Soundtracks: Dämonen
Baroness - Gold and Grey
**
Card:
Seems about right, as since I have hit the beta reading phase of the new book, I've already spent an hour or so this morning dusting off something new-ish. Just a short story as a palate cleanser before I dip back into the outline for Shadow Play Book Three!
Two Minutes to Late Night has been around a while, but it's just popped up in my youtube feed. A heavy metal late night talk show? Sign me up. This is the video that filtered into my feed, and from there I'm hooked. Subscribe and sample the metallic hilarity HERE.
**
Taking another small break from Breaking Bad, I had K pick out a show she'd already watched but thought I would like.
I really like this show. Blew through six of the ten episodes of Season One last night, and Two just dropped, so that will serve as a nice pallet cleanser before we enter the last leg of Walter White's saga of blood, money, and meth.
**
Playlist:
Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST
Goblin/Giorgio Gaslini - Profondo Rosso OST
Bob Wils and His Texas Playboys - The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 1
The Babies - Eponymous
X - Under the Big Black Sun
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
**
Card:
I've had this overwhelming urge to start slowly playing music again. After two decades of considering myself a musician, I took a hard, sharp turn against that and have probably only picked a guitar or bass maybe ten times in the last four and a half years. Recently, with some undo work stress piled on top of the stress of COVID living, I pulled out my electric - which needs some TLC from a professional - and my Takamine acoustic and have started to play a bit. At this point, guitar-wise, I pretty much have to re-learn the fucking instrument, so there's frustration a plenty there. But the acoustic has proven a balm for overly stressful days, and strumming here and there have me thinking about, well, playing. So, the question is, does The Fool tell me it's time to undertake this new journey, or that I'd be foolish to do so?
I think I'm going to have to pull a full-on spread for this one. No time for that today, though.
I knew this was coming, but I never dreamed it would look this good! More excited for this than pretty much anything else at the moment, and it serves as a nice bookend to the fact that I'm finally reading the series - only have Vol. Six and the one-off Vol. Seven left to go and I'll be completely ready for what looks like, at this point, the series of the year.
**
It's time once again for...
Over the last three days I've watched two more episodes, thus rounding out the Season One tier on Mr. Brown's Playlist. First, Season One, Episode thirteen, "Beyond the Sea," which not only featured Brad Dourif as convicted serial killer-turned-helpful-psychic Luther Lee Boggs (aided by another killer named Lucas Henry - see what they did there?), but also had Twin Peaks alum Don "Major Briggs" Davis as Scully's father. Super cool episode; fairly tight script, good character development, and an almost over the top performance from Dourif that was just plain fantastic to watch. Probably my favorite episode so far.
Next up was Season One, Episode Nineteen, "Shapes." Basically a Shapeshifter/Werewolf story set on an Native American Reservation, this episode also featured a Peaks alum, Michael Horse, aka Deputy Hawk. This one was a slosh clunkier than the last insofar as script, but overall, a solid, simple approach to the kind of archetypal folklore that makes this show fun.
Next up - and this I'm very excited for because although the episode resounds in my memory for all its infamy, Season Two, Episode Twenty's "Humbug" is not something I'm one hundred percent certain I've actually seen before.
Can't wait. So far, this little collaborative experiment between Mr. Brown and I has been quite fun, and really, we're just getting started.
**
NCBD yesterday:
This book gets more and more insane every month. I'm a little concerned at this point, it might not be able to stick the landing to whatever godforsaken place it's going, but it's still one hell of a ride getting there.
I am so very glad I started reading this book. Seriously, it's the type of dark, Ancestral Horror that used to populate paperbacks in the late 70s/early 80s, and although I was mostly too young to read that stuff at the time, I definitely picked up on its tone while stalking the shelves of the local libraries I used to frequent as a child. The Plot feels like a book that may end up leaving me with a gasp or two, which would be pretty cool, because with TWD gone, I need something to do that for me.
Whenever a major franchise book flips a landmark number, you have to kind of reassess. After the cataclysmic events of TMNT issue fifty, I felt the book took a few issues to really grab me again. Because of that, I've been a little concerned that for all its grandiosity, issue one hundred might do the same.
Nope.
I LOVE the new direction of this book. I won't go into spoilers, but we're finally done paying homage to all the stories of the past iterations of the characters, and are into completely new ground. And it. Is. Glorious, dark, and a little bit sad. And that's exactly where the characters should be. One thing about TMNT - probably the thing that always set it apart for me - for such a zany concept and highly marketable image, Eastman and, in the old days, Laird both excel at taking the characters and the readers out of their comfort zone. So yeah, I can't wait to read the next issue, and TMNT has pretty much replaced TWD as my new "gottareaditrightfuckingnow" title. Which makes me extremely happy.
**
Playlist:
NIN - Year Zero
Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
Federale - No Justice
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Anthony from The Horror Vision tipped me off to Allegaeon's music last week, and although I'd dabbled with it a bit over the last few days - enough to be absolutely staggered by their musicianship - Wednesday while playing them for a friend was the first time I realized how much these guys remind me of, A) Revocation, and B) Rust in Peace-era Megadeth. So far, I've only listened to this year's Apoptosis, but I definitely intend on working my way back through their discography. The music is insanely technical, while never feeling overly showy or contrived.
**
31 Days of Horror:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
10/02: Lords of Chaos
10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1
10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3
10/05: Bliss/VFW
10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog
10/07: Halloween 2018
10/08: Hell House, LLC
10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)
10/10: Creepshow Episode 3
10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)
10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena
10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
**
Playlist from the last few days:
Ritual Howls - Their Body
Crystal Castles - II
Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim
Barry Adamson - As Above So Below
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Numenorean - Adore
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
Nocturnal Projections - Complete Studio Recordings
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Twin Tribes - Shadows
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Death Crux - Mutant Flesh
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
**
Card of the day:
Interesting pull, as yesterday's writing session revealed to me the fact that at least one set of characters has a brand new journey to complete before the end of the book.
Spending my morning with Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, aka Fitzcarraldo. This is one of the most impressive motion pictures ever made. Period. I'm planning on following up the film with a viewing of Les Blank/Michael Goodwin's The Burden of Dreams, the documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo. If you've never seen these films, what's so amazing is this: in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, the titular character, as played by the always brilliant Klaus Kinski, is a would-be entrepreneur in the early 20th Century Amazon with one great dream in life: to build an Opera house in Iquitos, a small city in the jungle. To fund this, Fitz's plan is to become a Rubber Baron by exploiting the one region of rubber trees still unclaimed in the area - unclaimed because the rapids in the Ucayali River that leads from the Amazon directly to the region are unnavigable. But Fitz has a plan.
The Plan: To sail upstream on the neighboring Pachitea River, then pull the boat over the narrow strip of land that separates it from the Ucayali. From there, Fitz reasons they can sail down the Ucayali into the region of rubber trees, gather his workers' yield, and haul it back up to the crossover point, it's just a matter of short trips for his steamer up the Ucayali, and the work of transporting his crop back across to the Pachitea.
But, you know, first they have to actually pull a streamliner over a mountain.
So how do you film that? Well, you have to actually do all of it. As in, Herzog had to actually pull the steamer over the land, which required blasting. The Burden of Dreams chronicles the reality of a filmmaker willing to do the same fantastic feat he requires of his fictional character. It is massive, awe-inspiring, and the very best kind of creative insanity, to say the very least.
Playlist from 2/14:
Pink Floyd - Animals
Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
The Pack A.D. - Unpersons
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Mike Patton - Mondo Cane
Card of the day:
Seems to line up with my viewing this afternoon. Something this inspirational will usually help charge the batteries right before a new endeavor.
It's been a few years since I've put on any of Ween's music. Still one of my all-time favorite bands, their break-up back in 2012I was heart-broken. A reunion seemed possible down the road, but it hurt regardless because Ween were two friends that had gown up and shared so much making music together, it was exactly like my friends and I - Grez, Mr. Brown, Sonny, Tim - who had done the same. Then, in 2014 Aaron Freeman - AKA Gene Ween - released this song and I was deeply affected by it. I found myself hoping Ween would not reunite; I didn't want him to end up back where he had been. And ever since I've felt a disconnect from Ween.
Then, two days ago a younger guy was listening to Mac Demarco. I'd heard Salad Days before, but something about it grabbed me in that moment. I put the album on my headphones and by the end had an irresistible urge to listen to Pure Guava. After Guava, I dipped right into Painting the Town Brown, and for the first time in probably ten years listened to the entire 25+ minute Poop Ship Destroyer version in sheer, invigorated awe.
I've avoided seeing Ween since they reunited in 2016, despite the fact that they've played near me countless times. I'm not sure I'll go see them live again - not because of a grudge, just because I've seen them live SO many times - but it's nice to reconnect with something I love in a purely organic way.
First Marvel movie I've seen since Civil War, which, along with batman vs. superman, kinda broke my interest in big two comic book adaptations. I would have been fine skipping this one, too, except I have to say, the trailer for Endgame has me, and I figured I should see the flick that leads into it.
I didn't hate this, but I will say I absolutely hated the overbearing score by Alan Silvestri.
All along, I've been far more interested in where Marvel is ultimately going with the big picture for their cinematic universe, and Endgame looks like it will shut the door on the Avengers, at least for a time.
Fucking insane. That's all I can say. Must have been an influence on Panos Cosmatos.
I watched this one more because I was in a Joe Bob mood than for the movie itself. That Last Drive-In special is still up on shudder, under series I think, and each film and its adjacent commentaries are listed as episodes in the 'season.' Did I call Blue Sunshine insane? I was wrong. This IS insanity. Like Porky's fucked Ghoulies and had a horny, satanic baby that grew up and went to college with the revenge of the nerds cast.
Playlist from 12/29:
Shannon - Let the Music Play (Single)
Ministry - Animositisomina
Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Card of the day:
Not, I think, the beginning of a journey, but the end of one.
Saturday night my cousin Charles introduced me to Kevin Morby. It was late, there were a handful of people, all of us speaking passionately about this and that, so I couldn't really hear the music as it dwindled out of my small blu tooth speaker placed behind my parents' basement bar, but Charles' recommendations are always fantastic, even if I'm not always in the right headspace to completely sync with them.
No problem in the 'sync' department this time.
Sunday at Midway Airport I put on Morby's 2016 album Singing Saw and it became my travel album for the day, the 5 1/2 hour musical loop that got me through take off, flight, and departure in a beautifully fleeting hypnogogic trance. Needless to say the album is not only fantastic, but endeared to me now for all time.
Re-acclimating to LaLaLand and what we refer to as 'normal life' because here I don't eat terribly, drink full throttle every night, or dabble in anything beyond the occasional vape. Part of that re-acclimation process was as simple as putting some vinyl the turntable and just chilling the f*&k out. I led the way with a wonderful gift I received from Mr. Brown while I was in:
That's right! The 20th anniversary vinyl edition of Calexico's seminal The Black Light album. I'll be honest - back in the day Mr. Brown was always more into these guys than I was; Even Sure Things Fall Through was the album that hit me the most, with the very Badalamenti opener Sonic Wind virtually assuring my allegiance, and Feast of Wire played a pretty big role in my initial soundtrack upon moving to Los Angeles, but I've often had a hard time finding the right headspace to fit Calexico in on a semi-regular basis. And something about that seems to have changed, as my moods and headspace grow and expand. For almost ten years now I've experienced an increasingly strong connection to Metal in most of its forms (especially the newer, stranger mutations like Blut Aus Nord and The Body) because it's music that helps me write. Often even if I'm in the mood for slower, quieter tunes to listen to while writing it I have to jack the headphone volume because I primarily do the big work in a public place that pipes in music. Also, if I'm lagging, metal kicks my ass in gear. That said, my walk to said writing place is mellow and peaceful, and sometimes of late my morning music leans away from metal, as does my evening, at-home-on-the-record-player listening, so this is perfect. And, The Black Light is a beautiful record, as are the re-issue's linear notes, which are partially (or maybe entirely - they're long and I haven't had a chance to finish them yet) written by Calexico co-founder Joey Burns, so it's a wonderful window into the band and the situations/thoughts/experiences that led to the record's creation.
Playlist from Sunday, 12/16:
Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
Calexico - The Black Light
Card of the day:
The journey home is over, the journey back to a productive reality begins today.
Ended up falling into a Bowie spiral Saturday when I finished Cold Cuts and immediately picked up the copy of Hugo Wilcken's book on Low, published as part of the wonderful 33 1/3 series, that Brown lent me some time ago. Can't put it down, and in turn it's given me a new perspective on Iggy Pop's The Idiot, one of the few Iggy solo albums I'm extremely familiar with. The book also sent me in all sorts of new musical directions, cueing up albums by Neu!, Can (whose discography I worked through a few years back but didn't completely integrate into my musical vocabulary), Elton John, Gavin Bryars, and Sad Barrett's solo stuff, which despite having been an enormous Pink Floyd fan in high school, I've never really gotten around to.
Also, for an idea of Bowie's state of mind while in the Station to Station/Low period, go HERE and read this short except from Angela Bowie's autobiographical book Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with Bowie. Suggestion: skip the religious espousal at the top and go straight to the quotation marks. This is fascinating stuff.
K and I began The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix yesterday. While I can't say the high school stuff is overly interesting to me, I love the set design and ALL of the Satanic imagery! The Dark Lord is just awesome and the fact that we're living in a world where this is a 14+ series makes me happier than I can explain. Just thinking of all the repressively religious types twisting with rage that a show where characters commonly exclaim, "Praise Satan" as a colloquialism of happiness or relief is currently a major part of pop culture puts a damn large smile on my face!
Playlist from Saturday, 11/17:
Ghost - Meliora
Merciful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resources Vol. 1
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Burial - Kindred EP
Thought Gang - Eponymous
David Bowie - Station to Station
David Bowie - Low
Playlist from Sunday, 11/18:
David Bowie - Low
Elton John - Honky Chateau
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
Neu! - Neu! 2
Ghost - Meliora
Metallica - ... And Justice For All
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Claudio Simonetti & Goblin - Phenomena OST
Vangelis - Heaven & Hell
Friendly Fires - Paris (Airplane Remix)
Opeth - Deliverance
Card of the day:
I believe this draw to be completely non-writing related and primarily based around one aspect of my social life at the moment. I'm not going to discuss that here, however I can also say that despite the hanging on of this drab illness, I managed to push myself out and to my writing place yesterday in preparation for returning to work today, and I had a killer writing session for about two and a half hours where I cinched up the transition into the third act. I'm relying heavily on the Aeon Timeline program at the moment, and it would be A LOT more cumbersome to integrate something so heavily plotted as this without the help of this program. Here's a screen cap:
Jonas Åkerlund's Lords of Chaos is excellent. The film goes out of its way to humanize Euronymous, played by Rory Caulkin, and conversely sets Varg up to look pretty much like a bit of a wallflower. The cinematography is gorgeous - especially the church burning scenes - and the murder scenes are brutal. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre - which I'm on the fence with as far as the old, second wave stuff - or anyone fascinated by sociological oddities.
Being that it's Beyondfest time, I've been reflecting on some of the other films I've seen there over the last few years. At the same time, while catching up on the always brilliant Shock Waves podcast, Episode 112 has Gigi Guerrero as a guest. I didn't realize who she was until the hosts brought up her short film El Gigante, which I saw a few years ago at Beyondfest and LOVED, kind of a Luchadore-meets-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre hybrid. Here's the trailer:
Ms. Guerrero's production company El Luchagore's website is chock full of awesome content, and she says they are still in the early stages of making a full length out of the short. Also, there's a comic!
Playlist from 9/27:
Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Chris Connelly - The Tide Stripped Bare
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le Mani Destre Recise degli ultimi Uomini
Card of the day:
With this many recurrences of late, it's face value time: what am I being foolish about?
I messed this up and should have posted this yesterday, as September 25, 1980 is the day John Bonham passed away. 38 years... wow.
A week or two ago, the new Grady Hendrix book came out. Author of My Best Friend's Exorcism, Paperbacks from Hell, and Horrorstör, this guy has become a recent favorite of mine. Looking forward to this new one. Why?
Right up my alley. That said, I still have a lot of books to tackle before the year is over. My list of "To-Read" goes a little something like this:
Neil Gaimen - The Graveyard Book
Robert Payne Cabeen - Cold Cuts
Dead Reckoning - Dino Parenti
David Lynch - Room to Dream
Gemma Files - Experimental Film
That's not all of them, but it's the ones I really want to read before the end of the year.
Playlist from 9/25:
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Boy Harsher - Country Girl EP
Mad Love - White With Foam
Briqueville - II
Godflesh - Post Self
Card of the day:
As often as it appears in my daily pulls, I'm going to have to dig deeper on this card. I'm not getting a 'journey' vibe, literally or figuratively for today, so let's look at the Grimoire:
"Everything within. No external or obscured (The Moon) influences. Trust you gut. Materiality can point to eccentricity or folly."
Hmm. The materiality bit rings a bit true to some of my deep-rooted neuroses about money; I tend to buy to much stuff. Or this may be a resolution to a certain fatigue that has haunted me of late, making it more difficult than usual to walk down to my local coffeehouse and write (I drove yesterday, but only just convinced myself to go).
Bunch of new music on the way. My good friend Jacob alerted me to a new album from seminal Witch House group White Ring. They haven't been on my radar in ages, so it's cool to reconnect with their music, especially when some of is so indicative to me of what the mid-00s sounded like.
Memories of listening to music.
That's something you don't think about often, or at least I don't. Memories of listening to music. I mean, usually music evokes or scores memories, but to just reminisce on sitting in front of the computer on a day off from Borders and flipping around the internet looking for new stuff. I've lost a lot of the online gate keepers I that helped me find music back then (Not the best one, though), and tech has changed the hunting process greatly, what with the advent of Apple Music, so it feels further away than it is. And the tones White Ring utilizes, the actual synth and drum patches, they still sound right out of 2007, so it triggers these sometimes intense reveries.
Going to see Mandy in the theatre again tonight. It's such a shame this film is getting so small a theatrical run - I'm driving 35 miles each way to the Frida Theatre in Santa Ana so K can see it. This film was meant to be seen on the big screen, incredibly LOUD (thank you, Egyptian!). I ordered the vinyl a few days back, thought it wasn't coming out until November for some reason, but apparently they've already shipped, so I'm super happy about that. And, as you have hopefully already noted above, new music from The Black Queen. I don't know if all the guys from Dillinger Escape Plan's new bands can fill the DEP-sized hole in my life, but it's awesome they are moving on and trying!
Yesterday was apparently national Sunn O))) day, because that is most of what I listened to. Interesting first listen to Flight of the Behemoth, as a lot of it reminded me quite a bit of Throbbing Gristle.
Playlist from Friday, 9/21:
Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Sunn O))) - Void 00
White Ring - Gate of Grief
Sunn O))) - White1
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth
Card of the day:
As usual, perfectly relevant to me at this moment, as I've just spent a large part of my morning working out the logistics for a new 'journey' I'm poised to begin with three very good friends. What is it? You will know soon enough.
Holy cow, there's a new Cocksure album out! Listen to the way that synth comes in at 1:19 - old school never sounded so good!
NCBD and I am SUPER excited because the first installment of Batman: Damned hits today:
Also, I've been eager for more Seven To Eternity since it returned from hiatus last month (feels longer), so it's nice to see a new one. And what an awesome, Saga-like cover, despite the fact the book bears little resemblance to Saga; they are both awesome in very different ways.
It's going to be a good week!
Playlist from Tuesday, 9/18:
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Cocksure - Be Rich
Elder - Dead Roots Stirring
Tennis System - Pain EP
Jucifer - War Bird
The Atlas Moth - The Old Believer
Yob - Our Raw Heart
Card of the day:
Second iteration of this card in a row (I didn't pull yesterday). I finished Please Believe Me, however became reticent to submit it to the magazine I had planned to due to the fact that in their voluminous "What we don't want" list - which is hysterical reading - they mention anything that requires a 'vestigial belief in Judeo-Christian beliefs'. My story does not, however, the first line of the story, which is meant to be ultimately metaphorical and initially disorientating, is "It was a Thursday in September when seventy-three-year-old Heddie Larsen met the devil." I can just see an overworked slush pile operator reading that and moving no further with it. I thought about changing the line, but it would change the story, so in keeping with my draw today, I will wait and send them the results of the next journey, read: story, which I've already begun mapping out and is tentatively titled "Growth Spurt." It's the closest thing to hard Sci Fi I have written thus far. Think Primer meets Slither.
New Soft Moon remix by Imperial Black very much fits my mood today. I woke up with a taste for Industrial music, catalyzed by watching Julian Richards's Darklands. A document of its time, Darklands is sort of a 90s update on The Wicker Man, and is populated with some fantastic industrial imagery, reminiscent of the kind of thing Justin K. Broadrick uses for Godflesh records.
Screen cap from Darklands
Good flick, although much of the aesthetic of the 90s still seems overall cringe-worthy to me. But this definitely transcended those feelings. Darklands is available to stream on Shudder.
Finished John Palisano's excellent Night of 1,000 Beasts and before I jump into my next novel - Neil Gaimen's The Graveyard Book - I'm re-reading some Laird Barron as a pallet cleanser. Procession of the Black Sloth is one of those stories by Mr. Barron that I have read probably three or four times now, and I never grow tired of it. The tone borders on what I call Two A.M., flush with dim night-lighting and drunken reveries. It's a calm descent into terror and that's what I love about it and Barron's work in general.
Procession of the Black Sloth is available in Laird Barron's first collection, The Imago Sequence, which I cannot recommend highly enough.
Playlist from the last two days:
White Lung - Eponymous
Disasterpeace - It Follow OST
Canyons - Barrie single
Canyons - Michigan single
Canyons - Tal Uno single
Yob - Our Raw Heart
Legs Occult - Dark Rituals
Card of the day:
This I'm taking as a confirmation that I should follow my instinct and outline a new story bubbling around in my head. Oh yeah, that said, after putting it 'in the drawer' for a month, I came back to Please Believe Me and finished it the other night. Will be submitting it to a major Sci Fi magazine today or tomorrow, so keep those fingers crossed for me.
