Vera Sola's Skulls

Thursday night, I returned to the Landmark Cinema in West L.A. for a second theatrical viewing of Julia Ducournau's Titane, now holding steady as my second favorite film of the year. I brought two friends, stopped into the closest thing LaLaLand has to a neighborhood joint next door afterward for a beer and some discussion. All in all a great night, and one that was made even better when, on my drive home, I tuned into KXLU and found Fistful of Vinyl doing an all Misfits-covers set. Holy smokes, some great stuff. You can check out the full playlist HERE. In the meantime, this cover of 'Skulls' by Vera Sola ranked right up there near the top of what I heard, and every song I heard was fantastic. Check out her Bandcamp HERE,

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Watch:

My favorite show that K and I discovered in 2021 is Tony Basgallop's Servant. The experience we had watching this show was so fantastic - the casting alone won me over after about the first two episodes, especially Toby Kebbell, Lauren Ambrose and Rupert Grint, who probably proved to be my favorite character. It felt like we inhaled the first two seasons, and thankfully, before my free year of Apple TV+ runs out in March, they're dropping a new season in January! Here's the trailer, which no, I'm not watching:

If you haven't seen this, it's worth subscribing to Apple + for a month and binging it, maybe just wait until after all of this third season lands. And if you're put off by the fact that all the press says, "From M. Knight Shamalamadingdong, don't be. He is only the producer. This is Basgallop's baby, and the tone he holds for the 20 episodes that comprised seasons 1 and 2 is nothing short of breathtaking. 

Plus, there's a pizza place named Jesus Crust. Come on!

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) VHS 94 (don't waste your time)

2) The Mutilator

3) Demons 

4) Vortex

5) Possession

6) The Black Phone

7) Slumber Party Massacre

8) Antlers

9) No One Gets Out Alive

10) A Nightmare on Elm Street '84

11) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010

12) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

13) Satan Hates You

14) Night of the Demons

15) Lamb

16) The Company of Wolves

17) There's Someone in the House

18) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

19) Titane

20) A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (9, 10, Never watch again)

21) Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (Same. Awful)

22) The Innkeepers

23)Muppets Haunted Mansion/Freaky

24) Halloween Kills

25) The House of the Devil/A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

26) Freddy Vs. Jason (Ugh)

27)  Ghoulies

28) Titane/Boys From County Hell

29) Arachnophobia 

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

Motörhead - Ace of Spades

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto Vol. 1

Emilie Levienaise-Farrrouch - Censor OST

Pink Milk - Ultraviolet

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Deftones - Ohms

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Misfits - Collection I

Steve Moore - VFW OST

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Card:

Having the feeling of deja vu as I struggle to come to terms with all the shit I have, how much I want to keep, how much I want to get rid of, and what I inevitably jettison that will come back to haunt me later.

Ashen Grey Clouds of Doom Bring Purple Rain

As I continue to work my way through that stack of records that Relapse Records put out in 2020 and that I won for their 20th Anniversary, one of the bands I had no experience with whatsoever is Inter Arma. Garbers Days Revisited is an all-covers record, and I have to say, my first listen was super fun. Opening with Ministry's "Scarecrow" - super relevant to my recent listening habits - the group move through versions of "Southern Man", "March of the Pigs",  and "Running Down a Dream", to name a few. All these versions range from sludged-up to more or less straight forward, such as the above Prince track. 

Very cool record with one of my favorite album covers in a while, so I'll definitely be digging deeper into the Inter Arma catalogue.

 

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Read:

Not realizing that Bernie Wrightson's graphic novel adaptation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is out of print, I ordered what I thought was a copy from Amazon a few days ago. What arrived instead was the illustrated novel that features 40 of Wrightson's drawings.  Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed - I've read Wrightson's sequel, Frankenstein Alive, Alive,  but never that original. What makes it worse - the book goes for a minimum of $150 used with the nice version garnering between $300-$500 - is Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein adaptation was a book that routinely sat on the shelves at the borders I helped manage for years, and I just never got around to buying it. 

Regardless of the letdown,  looking at the illustrated novel, I realized it's been since Junior High since I actually read the original, and this new version has a bunch of cool supplemental material - a forward by Stephen King, a "historical context" essay and timeline, and the 1831 introduction by the author herself. Needless to say, this is my next read.

Looking through the illustrations, I realize what a shame it is I came to really appreciate Wrightson so late, as Mr. Wrightson's work is only describable as exquisite.

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Playlist:

Bit of a 90s parade of late, but that doesn't happen all to often, so I'm going with it:

Death - Human

Faith No More - The Real Thing

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (Deluxe)

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

Disappears - Pre Language

Garbage - Eponymous

The Maine - You Are OK

Inter Arma - Garbers Days Revisited

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Card:

As I often view this card as a nod toward saving money or 'nesting,' I've taken recent interpretations to possibly reference avoiding tempting social situations. I've had about five social outings - all super small with only one or two other people outside my own household - in the last year (hence this blog's brief stint titled 'Quarantine Junkie'), but recently, I've felt the urge to see a friend or two. Nope. Time to batten back down that Will and get the course set straight ahead. I recently came across this article that should serve as enough of a reminder. The idea of our air quality being so adversely affected by a record number of cremations is baffling - we're living in the setting for a Sci-Fi Horror Film, and not even aware of it on a day-to-day level. 

Isolation: Day 59 - Chelsea Wolfe Covers Crazy Train

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

Melvins Do Black Betty from Forthcoming Covers Record

The first song we've heard off of April 30th Melvins (and friends) cover album Everybody Loves Sausages. Thanks be to Mr. Brown for the heads up.

What is not addressed in the article is why JSBX - or what is commonly an abbreviation for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, is on the graphic. Are they somehow involved in with the track? There was no mention anywhere that I looked.