John Carpenter and Sacred Bones announced Lost Themes IV a few days ago. You can pre-order the record HERE. I'm not going to lie - I don't love this first single (or its video); the song feels like a long 5:44. That said, I've also not had the greatest morning - I woke up with one of my cats puking next to my face, so I might just be in an ornery temperament (JC can no doubt relate given that sour look plastered across his puss in the video). I'm suspending judgment - and all further listens - until I can hear the entire album. Something tells me "My Name is Death" will work better as a lead-in to the rest of the ten tracks.
Watch:
I watched Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys for the first time in what I'm realizing is close to twenty years last night. This flick was very important to me when it came out, and afterward.
No one uses a camera the way Gilliam and long-time Cinematographer Roger Pratt do; a lot of the angles here just reinforce Gilliam's Orwellian, bureaucratic worldview even more than the way he tells his story. This really put me in mind to finally order that Criterion Brazil 3 Disc DVD set they put out in the 90s. The update to Blu-Ray is tempting. However, I can't quite discern from what I'm seeing online if the other versions of the film in the 3 Disc were ported over to the Blu-Ray.
Gilliam's worldview, especially his sense of humor, very much shaped me as a young adult. I'd go so far as to say that, without early exposure to the works of Terry Gilliam and David Lynch, I would not be the person I am today. It's been quite some time since I revisited Gilliam, so perhaps it's time.
I'm not entirely certain how Joy Orbison came to mind this past Saturday morning as I sat in bed working on another new short story, but once I hit play on this track, I was immediately transported back to the dim evening light of 2009, when I spent a lot of time bumping the single that had "Hyph Mngo" on one side and "Wet Look" on the other*. I don't know exactly how long it's been since I listened to Joy Orbinson's music, let alone thought of it, but I'd wager a decade isn't too far off. A quick search of Apple Music revealed Joy's been consistently busy over the last thirteen years, and I had a wonderful morning tapping the keys and listening to everything I've missed.
* That's a misnomer - I didn't actually have the physical single, but the digital tracks.
Watch:
I watched quite a few flicks this weekend. Here's a rundown:
Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mailgirl brought in another stellar episode of The Last Drive-In this past Friday, which helped assuage my blues that Yellowjackets took the week off. First, a flick I'd never really cared for previously, Kevin Tenney's Witch Board:
I remember seeing the tv spots for this one during its original theatrical release in 1986. As a ten-year-old, those spots freaked me right the hell out, but the movie never made it onto my screen until 2011 when I bought a used copy at Amoeba Music. Needless to say, Witch Board fell extremely short of my heightened expectations, and I immediately gave that copy to a friend at work. I didn't think anything could make me enjoy this one after that, but I have to say, it's just a totally different experience watching a flick like this with the Drive-In crew. I still wouldn't profess to be a Witch Board fan, but I had a damn good time with it Friday.
The Last Drive-In's second flick was 1975's The Devil's Rain, which features Ernest Borgnine as a red-cowl-wearing Satanist. I love this flick, and it'd been a while, so even though I ended up falling asleep during it on Friday, I restarted and finished it yesterday. That ending!
Predating the Satanic Panic by just a couple years, this is the post-Hippie fallout in America in the 70s: It makes me laugh that so many people entertained the idea of large, active "Satanic Cults" operating all over the U S of A in the dark, psychic corridor following Peace, Love and Understanding. I feel like this movie spins directly out of that idea.
Saturday I received a call from my Cousin Charles, who had just watched John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness for the first time. This made me realize I hadn't sat down with some Carpenter in a while, so I planned a double feature and kicked it off with Big Trouble in Little China:
I'm not sure there's a movie I know of that is more quintessentially 'Me.' I first saw Big Trouble in 86 or 87 -whenever it first hit VHS - and that put me at 10 or 11 years old and 100% in Double Dragon, Snakes Eyes and Storm Shadow, and any stories that included underground caverns and realms. BTiLC has ALL of that, and it shaped me in a way I'm still trying to tap into in my writing.
I followed one Carpenter favorite with another, 1987's Prince of Darkness: In terms of John Carpenter's films, I always say Prince of the Darkness is my favorite, but the caveat I add is you have to just take Big Trouble out of the ranking - it's always going to win. The Thing and Halloween are both up near the top as well, but the mechanics of the story in Prince of Darkness always blow me away, as well as how effective the film is with such an obviously diminished budget from JC's better-known films.
Finally, Sunday afternoon I finally dug out my old DVD copy of Doug Limon's Go and showed it to K. Here's the trailer:
Maybe it was because I caught the tail end of K watching the Train Wreck: Woodstock 99 doc on Netflix Saturday afternoon, but I had the late 90s on the brain, as awful as they were. Anyway, this flick was introduced to me by friends after we got into a fight with a bunch of gangbangers at, where else, the Crazy Horse II in Vegas. I'm not a strip club kinda guy, but I've been to a few in my early 20s. This was by far the highlight, and not because it was a strip club, but because we literally had to run out of the club, jump a taxi line and steal someone's cab to get away in one piece. After all that, one of the friends with me remarked how much like a sequence in Go the whole thing was, and when I professed to not having seen the film, he showed me.
While John Carpenter's 1995 film Village of the Damned is one of the few Carpenter movies I just cannot hang with (I've tried several times and never made it past the second act of the movie), this track by French Electroclash guru The Hacker sounds like sweet, dark candy; perfect for a dark and rainy Christmas Eve morning, my last in LaLaLand.
Taken from the album Reves Mecaniques, 2004 Different Recordings.
Watch:
I finally got around to watching Michael Sarnoski's PIG with Nicolas Cage. NOT what I expected AT ALL, and wonderful because of it. I loved seeing a movie take the piss out of this particular cultural milieu, and in such a strangely calming manner to boot.
Playlist:
Godflesh - Post Self
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Ministry - Moral Hygiene
Yeruselem - The Sublime
Wolves in the Throne Room - Primordial Arcana
Converge and Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I
Pike Vs the Automaton - Alien Slut Mom (pre-release single)
New video for John Carpenter's Alive After Death, from the forthcoming album Lost Themes III: Alive After Death, out February 5th on Sacred Bones Records. You can pre-order the record from Sacred Bones HERE, or, do what I did and pre-order the Wax Work/Sacred Bones collab like I did HERE, although, without checking, there's probably a pretty good chance this one is long since sold out.
Watch:
K and I finished the new and apparently final "season" of Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Hot damn I love this show! Here's a cool little bloopers reel Netflix dropped on youtube a bit ago. It's cool to see everyone having fun between takes.
Playlist:
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Ravenous Wolves - Stories and Pictures
Ravenous Wolves - A Horror of Shades Demo EP
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Out February 5th on Sacred Bones, with a variant that I pre-ordered from Waxwork, which I am now ridiculously excited for after hearing this track!
NCBD:
You can set your freakin' watch by how on-time this book is every month.
Lonely Receiver's penultimate issue. I'm really enjoying this one, and things really crystalized last issue, so this is sure to be pretty F*ked up!
I'm unclear whether this "Zero" issue of the Locke and Key/Sandman crossover due out early next year is a full issue, or simply what amounts to an ashcan-sized promo. I'm also unsure why this is coming up as being out this week but has October 2020 across the front cover.
Playlist:
Ainoma - Necropolis
Airiel - Molten Young Lovers
Barrie - Canyons (single)
Barrie - Happy To Be Hear
The Blueflowers - Circus on Fire
The Blueflowers - Relapse EP
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny
Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Card:
Let go of your preconceived notions and prepare to shake things up a bit. Feels like I could really use this.
I was able to score tickets to Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In at the Torrance Roadium last night. Nine short films and several trailers, of which, Snake Dick was my favorite. Here's the film in its entirety. Worship it:
1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)
2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"
3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"
4) Waxwork
5) Synchronic/Bad Hair
6) Dolls
7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"
8) 976-Evil
9) Repo! The Genetic Opera
10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser
11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses
13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)
14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7
15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes
16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode
17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning
18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode
19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"
20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch
21) The Omen
22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)
23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern
24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons
25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia
26) Prince of Darkness/Tales of Halloween (remainder)
27) Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In - Nine short films
Playlist:
Meg Myers - Sorry
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Molchat Doma - Monument
Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge
Specimen - Azoic
Daniel Ash - Coming Down
Card:
Lots of fours lately, and even though they indicate coming from a stable place, I feel like the luxury moniker comes at an appropriate time, as I feel like I've been a touch hedonistic of late and am paying the price. I feel perpetually fat, stupid, and lazy. I spend too much money on frivolous (but awesome) things. My cup runneth over, but at what cost?
What a great way to kick off a holiday weekend, as Sacred Bones announces new, non-soundtrack music from John Carpenter! Read about the new 12" and pre-order it directly from Sacred Bones HERE, or from their bandcamp for 'no fees' day HERE.
**
Speaking of 80s Horror icons, over the past two nights, K and I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Dead and Scream, Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street, the new documentary on Shudder about the fall of the film's Final Boy Mark Patton's career after staring in the NoES sequel. The doc is great; it sheds light on a lot of questions that naturally arise in the wake of watching the film, and it really helps recontextualize a lot about 80s Mainstream Horror and Hollywood in general. Freddy's Revenge still feels rushed and stilted, however, previously every decade or so I re-watch it thinking it can't be as bad a I remember, and it always is. This time? Maybe in light of the revelations that have come out about the film, or maybe just because time has turned the nostalgia factor up for me - I've never been a huge Freddy fan beyond the original - but I didn't hate watching the film this time.
**
Playlist:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Various Artists - The Void OST
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance
Soundgarden - SOMMS (Record Store Day Vinyl Exclusive)
Black Marble - In Manchester (pre-release single)
**
Card:
Generating positive energy shapes the world. As does negative energy. I've always been a believer in using positive and dismissing the negative. There's a fuckton of negative at the moment, so this is a nice reminder to take a deep breath and look past it.
Mr. Brown turned me on to Code Orange's new record Underneath a few days ago, and it's been quickly becoming a staple. The album is all over the place as far as textures; so many influences in these guys that, in a way, I feel like they're the bridge between reclaiming some of the cooler elements in late 90s/early 00s metal - most of which was ruined by near constant narcissism and ostentatious infusion of hip hop aesthetics - and bridging those elements with the groove-heavy pioneering of mid-period Sepultura, the speed of and precision of DEP, as well as the latter's occasional penchant for incorporating glitch-like electronic elements.
Underneath dropped on Roadrunner Records recently; if you're interested you can order it HERE.
**
Speaking of metal, yesterday I re-watched the Joe Bob Briggs presentation of Jason Lei Howden's Deathgasm. Man, I love this movie.
Also, I finally watched the John Carpenter/Tobe Hooper anthology Body Bags. Not sure why this one took me so long to get around to. Fantastic. The cast really surprised me, with a slew of B-Level actors whose chops were never more apparent than at the direction of two Masters of Horror.
Killing Joke - The Fall of Because
Killing Joke - Night Time
Code Orange - Underneath
White Lung - Paradise
The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup
The Babies - Our House On the Hill
**
Card:
From the Grimoire: "Saving Money." Fitting. Stimulus landed today and all but a tiny bit of it went directly into Savings. I'll stimulate the economy when we buy a house. In the meantime, a portion of the remainder of the government pay-off for ineptitude will be spent on Kindle editions of William Gibson's The Peripheral and it's recently released follow-up, Agency.
A track from their Part Time Punks Session Cassette floated to the top of my youtube channels this morning, and in listening to it, I realized glorious LA post punk band Second Still released a full-length record last year that I somehow totally missed! Time to remedy that - Violet Phase is available on the band's Bandcamp HERE, although as I write this I see all physical versions of the album are sold out. In the meantime, here's the track that started this morning's odyssey.
**
I'm pretty damn happy to still have a job, so I'm helping out in any way I can. We've been rotating shorter hours, and as such, I ended up with yesterday off. Here's the watchlist:
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy - OST
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond
Killing Joke - Night Time
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Childish Gambino - because the internet
Second Still - Violet Phase
White Lung - Paradise
Dio - Lock Up the Wolves
A little something from the Trust Obey soundtrack to James O'Barr's graphic novel The Crow. This entire album is fantastic beyond words.
David Gordon Green's Halloween is pretty great. My post-viewing reaction, as well as the reactions of two of my cohosts on The Horror Vision podcast, can be heard on Apple Podcasts or our website. WARNING: This eleven minute mini-episode is FILLED with spoilers so beware.
31 Days of Horror:
10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
10/13) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
10/14) The Apostle
10/15) Phantom of the Paradise
10/16) Candyman
10/17) Ghoulies
10/18) John Carpenter's Halloween
10/19) Halloween
Playlist from 10/19:
Tones on Tail - Everything
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Not Waving - Good Luck
Beak> - L.A. Playback
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers, and Queers
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Card of the day:
A problem solved. Hoping this pertains to my writing work today, which is all about reading and editing and thus, is rife with problems, chief among them, DISTRACTION.
I received my copy of Death Waltz Records' Big Trouble In Little China OST yesterday. Fantastic! I love all JC's music, but this one, both with the movie and as a stand-alone listening experience, may just be my favorite.
Playlist from yesterday:
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Christine - Brand New Furies EP
The Cure - Carnage Visors
The Cure - Collector's Curiosities, Vol. 2
John Carpenter/Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Card of the day:
Second day in a row and third in a week. Needed this.
I know I just posted the full album stream that Deafheaven's record label Anti- put up last Friday, however, I'm still ingesting the album and while it is chock full of wonderful surprises, this song hit me the hardest. Gorgeous. And look, there's Chelsea Wolfe, who I appear to be inadvertently stalking here on my blog.
Playlist from yesterday:
John Carpenter's Lost Themes II
Yep. That's it. One album. We spent the day cleaning and organizing our garage, which has enough storage to essentially be a storage unit, so there wasn't a lot of time for music. Ended the night by viewing my new Scream Factory Blu Ray of John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, my favorite Carpenter film (not his best film, but my favorite). I had a hard time deciding on the collector's edition or the steelbook, as the latter comes with an awesome lithograph. I went with this one because it is my all-time favorite cover art for a dvd/br, artist Justin Osbourne:
If anyone knows where I can get a poster of this, please let me know. I've looked online but found nothing and apparently this edition was originally released with one.
No card today, but let's do the Prince of Darkness trailer to round things out:
You ever wanted to know where Boards of Canada came from, here it is. WaxWork put out a fabulous remaster of The Thing earlier this year and it is proving to be my most listened to record of the year.
This was released via Relapse Records today. If you remember, this is the band that had an amazing recreation of John Carpenter's The Thing done stop motion with old school 3 3/4 GIJOE figures as a music video last year. That was my intro to their music and I've been waiting on this new record for what seems quite a long time. Well, it's here!
New Half-Pint entry into our 'micro-series' where we discuss Eric Powell's The Goon, his collaboration with John Carpenter on the Big Trouble In Little China sequel book from BOOM! Studios and, er, social ills and how pouring beer on yourself can help them...?
Yep. And it's awesome. Mr. Brown just sent me a link to an article on buzzfeed where Jack Shepard (assuming it's not the oxy-popping, dying on the island Jack Shepard) posted a link to this almost five years ago. The video itself, done by Simon Gesrel and Xavier Ehretsmann for the band Zombie Zombie, was originally uploaded to youtube in '08, so the question is how have I never seen this before and why does something this amazing only have 77K hits?
Spread the word. This is awesome on every possible level.
