New Music From Man Man and Alien Romulus Gets a Teaser!!!

 

New music from Man Man! From the forthcoming album Carrots on Strings, out June 7th on Subpop. Pre-order HERE.

Man, after Ryan Ketner showed up in Josh Forbes' Destroy All Neighbors two months ago, I've been lamenting not having more than one Man Man record in nearly ten years - 2020's Dream Hunting in the Valley In-Between was the first record since 2013's On Oni Pond, which just feels like a lifetime ago. Anyway, here we are - a new record and an insane new song that sounds, at times, like something from Six Demon Bag. I'd love to see whatever the band looks like live again - last time was for 2011's Life Fantastic and they were awesome! Shit, I'll even put aside my crippling dislike of "John Travolta" for them.

 

I think...

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Watch:

Yes!!!!

The Blood! The Screams! The ambiguity - this is everything I want in both a teaser and a new Alien movie directed by Fede Fucking Alvarez! 

I have the highest of hopes that Fede has been allowed to bring to Alien what he brought to Evil Dead - an unflinching, brutal approach. Alien doesn't, by nature, allow the creator to shy away from a certain level of brutality, but come on, let's make this as horrific as possible! Let's merge the nightmarish approach of Alien Resurrections - which does indeed suffer from a lot of craft issues but overall has some of the most terrifying ideas and images of all the films - and the non-stop attack of Aliens. If anyone can do it, Mr. Alvarez can. 

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Playlist:

Yawning Balch - Volume One

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - God Fodder

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Bite

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Are You Normal?

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - brainbloodvolume

Chris Brokaw - Puritan

Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the End of the War

Man Man - Life Fantastic

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm recently launched a Kickstarter for his new deck, The FaeBound Tarot, which you can marvel at and acquire HERE.

• Page of Swords - Stop. Breathe. Assess. Applies to both my life at this very moment and my character's.

• Queen of Wands - Unceasing female energy. Know when you're fighting just for the love of fighting. Definitely Lisa's (my character)

• VII: The Chariot - Emerging Victorious from a trying time. Again, this applies to both me and Lisa. 

K has a low Vitamin D deficiency, and that means I have been tasked by her doctor with giving her inter-muscular Vitamin D injections once a week for the next four weeks, starting today. Have I mentioned how absolutely terrified of needles I am? 

In terms of Lisa, she will emerge victorious, but only at the cost of a major compromise. Once again, I read this as an acknowledgment that I'm on the right track.

Moon Wizard - Luminare

I'm not even certain how I stumbled across Moon Wizard, but hot damn am I glad I did. I LOVE this band! New album Sirens came out a few weeks ago and you can click on that Bandcamp Widget above or this link HERE and support these guys!

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NCBD:

Pretty big haul today. Let's get into it:

Two issues of Army of Darkness Forever remain after this one, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the three disparate timelines - Ash in the future, Evil Ash in the 90s, and Sheila in the Medieval Army of Darkness timeline - all coalesce. 

This Cobra Commander series is the best damn thing since sliced bread. My Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shin stole a peak at this one while putting it on the shelves at his shop, and without revealing anything, his "Damn," pronouncement has me giddy A.F. for tomorrow.

Love the cover. I was happy to learn that Larry Hama's seminal G.I.JOE: ARAH is making such a triumphant resurgence, and I'm happy to do my part. Even with an almost 200 issue gap in my reading, I'm digging returning to the book that turned me into a hardcore comic fan. 

Johnny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling. With old buds John Constantine and Alec Holland's Swamp Thing back together again, what madness awaits? We shall see...

I feel like the second issue of this just came out. The other side of the Fall of X coin, I'm digging Al Ewing's approach to this a lot. As I mentioned in a recent episode of Drinking with Comics, this shares some DNA with his 2021 Defenders series, of which I was a pretty big fan. 

Hate to see this chapter in Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Bone Orchard Mythos go, but with the world-building going on in the previous two issues, I'm psyched that however Tenement ends, it will pave the way for future great things.

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty skeptical about this one. That said, I've come this far not to finish this whole Fall of X thing out, and the four-issue X-Men: Forever appears to be the caboose on Kieron Gillen's train, so let's do this, for better or worse.

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Watch:

Fede Alvarez, I'd follow you into hell, because tomorrow...

Is today...

Can't F**kin' wait! 

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Playlist:

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Moon Wizard - Sirens

The Obsessed - Gilded Sorrow

Goat Snake - Black Age Blues

Yawning Balch - Volume One

Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm recently launched a Kickstarter for his new deck, The FaeBound Tarot, which you can marvel at and acquire HERE.

• IX: The Hermit

• Queen of Pentacles

• Five of Cups

There's the Hermit in first position again. That's two days in a row, so let's look a little deeper into it. From the grimoire: "Dark & lonely period of gestation. Fetal; a re-grouping. This is EXACTLY where I'm at after two days of working on the last act of the novel. It's uncanny. The Queen of Pentacles - or the Emotional aspect of Earthly concerns is my protagonist Lisa exactly. The Five of Cups is the Emotional Conflict she is soon to be crushed under in determining how best to survive the events of the novel's final conflict. I don't necessarily see guidance for my way forward in these cards, but they definitely feel like a nod to the fact that I'm on the right path. To quote Deputy Hawk: 

"You're on the path. You don't need to know where it leads. Just follow."

November 3rd as Portal to the Future

Poignant words from an album I fell in love with in High School. This day will change things going forward. Unfortunately - and I hope to hell I'm wrong here - I'm preparing for either outcome at the polls today to bring domestic terrorism on a scale we've not seen before. Obviously, the preferred outcome is achieved and we step into a new chapter, but I believe the "Stand back, stand by" was meant to put orange's cronies on watch for this very day. Expect militarized action if he is tossed out on his ass, as he should be. Of course, if the opposite happens, well, I guess we'll really know what kind of cuntry (and other cunt like tendencies) we live in, and how many bigots, xenophobes, and downright misguided people surround us. In that case, well, it's going to be a very long four years.

 

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Watch:

This is more of a listen than a watch, but here's a great episode of Henry Rollin's KCRW radio show where Mike Patton is his guest. They get into some great stuff in this one: 

 

In the actual category of 'Watch' however, my first non-US region Blu Ray arrived yesterday. If you listen to The Horror Vision, you'll know my cohost and good friend King Butcher swears by his region-free player, and I finally decided to listen to him. I jumped the gun and ordered several things from Arrow's Shocktober sale - the Hellraiser Trilogy Blu Ray Boxset and Bride of Renanimator - and then doubled down and picked up a copy of the Swedish release of Fede Alvarez's 2013 Evil Dead on ebay. I'd been planning to hunker down and pick up a region-free modified player this week, but LUCKILY, I did some reading first and found out that, joy of joys, the two Sony Blu Ray players I've had for the last several years already are region-free!!! Evil Dead arrived last night, I pulled it from the mailbox this morning upon seeing the notification, and popped it in. Happy to report - it works! 

I LOVE Alvarez's Evil Dead - I count it as my second favorite among all the films - adamantly battle the idea that it's a remake (Tappert, Raimi and Campbell have all said all along it's not), and am psyched to finally own the extended cut.

I'm thinking I may leave work a little early to try and avoid any madness, come home and watch this one while encased in a 'womb of refer.'

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Playlist:

Opeth - Deliverance 

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse 

Meg Myers - Sorry 

Foster the People - Torches 

Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips 

Apple Music Blackgaze Pioneers Playlist 

Amesoeurs - Eponymous 

Yob - Cleraing the Path to Ascend 

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Card:

I really read around on the Pull this morning, because here's the first card I drew:

From (source) "In a more personal view the Emperor might stand for a time of stability and structure, linear thinking and discipline. Yet we can't live without it, too many of those attributes will only lead to rational despotism and mental poverty."

Wow. On the nose for current situation. However, nothing to indicate which way things might go. (NOTE: I did not set out to direct my morning Pull at the election, that just happened.)

Next, in a classic Past - Present - Future Draw, I pulled:

For Past: Baggage - the Lust of Earthly result leads to a great weight that makes it impossible to get out from under. Yeah, the last four years I've increasingly felt that weight. Finally, for Future:

Hmm. From the Grimoire: "The Airy aspect of Earth. Pragmatism. Can be a bit of a cunt for matters pertaining to money and stability."

The Prince of Disks can be stubborn and ignorant when ill-dignified, which is something I only take into account when I'm having trouble deciphering how the cards in a Pull relate to one another, never in a one-card Draw. The Airy aspect of Earth, so strength in practical matters. This also implies a certain degree of trust-worthiness and inventiveness. Often, a good listener.

Definitely not our current problem's cup of tea, being a good listener.

Is this Biden? It fits some of what I know about him, but the 'stubborn and ignorant' are almost our current problem's calling cards, especially the 'ignorant' aspect. The card was not ill-dignified, so I have to hope that's not the case and we have a change in Guard (I was really hoping to draw XVI The Tower as the future card, but no so luck). 

All this does is remind me that the cards are merely reflections of our inner psychology and how it rubs up against the collective unconscious and, perhaps, more 'cosmic' elements we don't really have a chance in hell of understanding in any literal sense, because they are not literal in nature. So what's the outcome? We'll have to see. Go Vote people. 

2018: November 15th

My copy of Thought Gang's long-lost album arrived a day early, so I've already spent a fair amount of time with it (though not nearly enough). So far, this is my favorite track on the album. My mid-90s self would have been all about this one.

Another day home feeling like shite. Trying to use the time wisely, though I've yet to do any writing, which I have planned in a bit. Spent the morning reading old issue of Classic X-Men, as I've been wanting to re-read a large chunk of Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men for quite some time now but never manage to find the time. I started off with the Dark Phoenix Saga and will move on from there. There are a few holes in the collection, but for the most part I have it all from Dark Phoenix on. A few of my favorite issues that I am looking forward to re-reading:

Fede Alvarez just proved what I've been saying for going on six years now. Thank you, Mr. Alvarez. Now, how about that sequel???

My friend Daniel just published a beautiful, heartfelt goodbye to Stan Lee. Read it HERE.
Playlist from 11/14:

Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Vol. III
Thought Gang - Eponymous

Card of the day:

I continue to encounter larger, archetypal guidance. I'm reading this as a suggestion to keep up a new yogic routine, which I began with two days last week and subsequently slacked off on.

2018: June 19th

Gorgeous new Beach House video.

Watched Evil Dead (2013) for about the fifth time last night, as K had never seen it. SO fucking good. Please Mr. Alvarez, make that sequel!!!

Playlist from 6/18:

Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Wrong - Fee Great
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Beach House - 7
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Them are Us Too -
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Card today:

The Emotional Aspect of Air. Wielding the Will with emotional maturity. Knowing when to back off and when to be assertive.

The Neon Demon

Finally watched this last night and it might just be my movie of 2016. Beautiful is an understatement; the visuals are equally hallucinatory, mesmerizing, magnificent and scandalous. And the score - once again Mr. Cliff Martinez hits it out of the park when pairing sounds to Mr. Refn's images. I will own this eventually, and I will order it in the equally mesmerizing double vinyl set on the Milan Records website.

The Neon Demon only strengths my resolve that Nicolas Winding Refn, along with Fede Alvarez and Denis Villeneuve, is at the top of my "modern directors I would follow to hell" list.

Fede Alvarez's Don't Breathe

Simply put, I Love Fede Alvarez's 2013 continuation of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead SO MUCH that I would follow him to hell and back (Love Panic Attack! too). So when I heard about his new film Don't Breathe - although I'm bummed it's not another chapter in Mia's corner of the Evil Deadverse - I was stoked for another movie from him, especially one with such an awesome concept.

And Jane Levy to boot!

Ataque de Pánico!!! (Evil Dead)

You know, I just put two and two together for the first time. I remember when this short went viral about three years ago - I loved it and the story that followed about how Raimi supposedly flew the creator up to LA from his native Uruguay and put him to work for Ghost House made me even more happy. It reinforced what a great person and outside-the-box filmmaker Raimi is. Flash forward a couple years and Ataque de Pánico! has been off my radar long enough for it never to have dawned on me that this was the same guy directing the Evil Dead remake.

Now I'm even more excited and honestly, I didn't think that was possible.

Evil Dead Talk w/ Fede Alvarez & Jane Levy

Bought my tickets last night for Evil Dead on Friday. I CAN'T WAIT!!! I'm posting this from work - if you watch this you're seeing it before me as my hands are freezing from liquid nitrogen vapor and I've no speakers on this computer. There may be spoilers as far as the franchise. thanks to the always awesome bloodydisgusting for posting this.