Rodney Crowell - Ever the Dark

My favorite track from a fantastic summer album Mr. Brown recently recommended to me, Rodney Crowell's The Chicago Sessions, produced by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. 

Crowell has been kicking around for decades; his debut record, Ain't Living Long Like This came out in 1978, but I don't remember ever being exposed to his music until Brown sent me a copy of his 2018 Christmas Record Christmas Everywhere last year. Working backward, there's a wealth of fantastic material (especially on that first record and 2001's The Houston Kid). Crowell spent some time in the mid-to-late 70s in Emmylou Harris's backing band, and they did an album together in 2013 that's also on my list to check out.

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Watch:

I've never really been a Godzilla fan, but I have to admit, I think I'd probably be a fool not to see Godzilla Minus One when it opens this December:

 

I'm assuming it was lack of exposure to Godzilla flicks as a kid that is the reason they don't really resonate with me. I remember when the trailer for that first Legendary film with Brian Cranston popped up before something in the cinema - that trailer made me think the new approach would be a lot more in the Cloverfield vein, and that sounded really cool at the time. Then several of my friends saw it and reported back that if I was looking for something new, this wasn't it. I let that film come and go, then tried to watch the second one on HOBOMAX a few years ago and actually fell asleep for lack of Godzilla. Will this return to Toho ignite a love for these films? Well, it's not likely to move the needle backward, but you have to admit, this looks pretty badass, so I'll check it out. What I'm really hoping is all my Godzilla-loving friends come away super happy with this one; the buzz of the franchise's return to its original home Toho seems like a good omen for sure. 

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Read:

I finished Nathan Ballingrud's The Strange, and as I suspected, I'm having a difficult time choosing a book to move to next, simply because The Strange was so damn good. Officially, as of right now, this is the best novel I've read in 2023 (new or old):

Described by the Author in the afterword as "The Martian Chronicles meets True Grit," I think that says it all. This is a coming-of-age story shaped by loss and the quiet, frustrating echoes of it that resound forward through our lives and shape who we become, especially for those loss touches at a young age. Annabelle Crisp is a protagonist for the ages, and I loved the brief 'wraparound' that Ballingrud employs so we could 'hear' a grown Belle relate the events of her 14th year on Mars, 1931. 

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Playlist:

Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath

Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Soul Coughing - El Oso

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab

Lustmord - Berlin

Metallica - The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited

Various - Apple Yacht Rock Essentials

Bria - Cuntry Covers Vol. 2

The Ravenonettes - In and Out of Control

T. Rex - The Slider

Rodney Crowell - The Chicago Sessions

Bluekarma - The Frictin, The Pain

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Southern Fried True Crime Podcast - Episodes 180, 182 and 190

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Oracle:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE. And as of 5:00 PM Central Time today, September 5, 2023, you can head over to Kickstarter and back Grimm's new deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot. Check it out HERE.

• Eight of Cups

• Six of Pentacles

• IV: The Emperor

Right off the bat (and probably because I'm tired and have a lot of work-work in front of me), I'm reading this with a squint, which is to say, I'm not even looking past the fact that there's only one Major here, and it's telling me to sit quietly and hammer out my work before even thinking about the creative and emotional threads that will emerge as the day lengthens. 

High On Fire's First Album Again

Man, I was pretty skeptical when I heard High On Fire were having their first album, The Art of Self Defense remastered for a re-release. On the one hand, it's still probably my favorite of their albums (Blessed Black Wings comes a pretty close second, though). Yet, while I still have the original, Man's Ruin CD version of Self Defense I bought at Crow's Nest Records in Down Town Chicago shortly after it came out in 2000, I'd love to have the record on vinyl, so it was with great trepidation I hit play on Apple Music this morning...

It's awesome. My greatest fear was they would raise Pike's voice and over-compress; not that there's a precedent for the latter with the band's subsequent releases, and I love Pike's voice as it's come to more prominence with each release after this one, but there's something so amazing about the way Self Defense sounded the day I brought it home, sparked up and put it in the stereo all those years ago. I was perplexed by the singer's voice being so low (this was my introduction to the new wave of "Stoner Rock" as everyone was calling it at the time, having previously enjoyed St. Vitus and Count Raven more 'flush with the mix" vocals on WXAV, 88.3 FM, St. Xavier's College Radio), but marveled at the way the guitars sparkled like they do for only one other human being I know - Tony Iommi! The rhythm section was so tight, so pummelling; it was all just such a fresh experience compared to whatever else was out there at the time Metal-wise. So The Art of Self Defense looms large in my life, and as with anything we deem to be of that importance, I felt nervous as hell about anyone changing it.

Again, no reason to be nervous. This shit rules!

"Blood From Zion" feels the most changed from the first side of the album ("Master of Fists" sounds like a different guitar take altogether was used for this release). Interestingly, for most of the tracks, Matt Pike's voice remains at just about the exact same level it was at in the original release; it's just clearer. Nice trick! The descending riff that bridges the first and second verses has to be heard on headphones to be believed. IT'S SO FUCKING HEAVY. I mean, it was always so fucking heavy, but it's like they added subsonic bulldozers to the mix or something. SO GOOD. 

You can find this pretty much everywhere online, however, High On Fire's Bandcamp has an exclusive, and while I love that original cover, I do still have that CD (remember Grace note database or whatever that function iTunes had where, if you transferred a CD to digital it could find the album information for you? When I digitized my old Self Defense to put on an iPod back in the late 00s, it came back with The Art of Self Defense, by Sleep!). 

Yeah, I think I can make room in my soul for this cover, too. You can also order directly from MNRK Heavy HERE, where the non-exclusive still has the same cover and will cost you a few bucks less on shipping.

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Watch:

Two nights ago, K and I watched Kurtis David Harder's newest film, Influencer on Shudder. I dug Harder's previous film Spiral quite a bit, but based on the title of this one, I was expecting a story about a completely unlikeable Influencer who gets her comeuppance.

Nope!

I'm not going to post the trailer, because you shouldn't watch it. Yes, in the opening sequence of the film, you meet a really annoying social media influencer. Stick with it! That's not what the film is; this one reminded me A LOT of the experience I had watching Brad Anderson's Transsiberian back in 2008 or 2009, whenever it first hit video. Both films take continuous ninety-degree turns, so without having seen a trailer or read anything about either, I was left wondering from scene to scene, "Oh, is this what the film is about? Is this the landscape the characters are going to have to live in?" And, so beautifully, those assumptions were always squashed as something new gets introduced to change the film's narrative yet again. Really fun watch; not Horror, but a thriller for sure. Save it for a night when you want twists and turns more than blood and guts.

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Playlist:

††† - Invisible Hand (pre-release single)

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

††† - Eponymous

The Bronx - The Bronx (III)

Various - Lost Highway OST

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Deftones - White Pony

Converge - Jane Doe

Blue Karma - The Friction, the Pain

      

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XIV - Temperance or "Art" in Thoth speak

• Four of Swords 

• Three of Swords

Fight for your Art! Fours show stability and Threes the process of Growth or Change. The Novel's becoming something more than I'd planned, and while it's more work, I can temper myself against that and fight on toward the finish line.

Tarot aside, if you dig Jonathan Grimm's Bound deck, he has a Kickstarter launching on September 5th for his new deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot. This one's all Metal, Monsters, Magick in one beautiful deck. Here's the link; the campaign isn't active yet, but you can hit the Notify Me button and get in on the ground floor September 5th!

 

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New Music from Colter Wall!

 

Really digging this new album from Colter Wall that dropped yesterday. Major props to Jonathan Grimm for turning me onto this guy. You can order Little Songs directly from Colter's website HERE.

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Watch:

 I have had a rough time trying to get into Junji Ito's work. I tried the 2000 adaptation of Uzumkai titled Spiral and didn't get very far. I recently attempted the new Netflix series adapting several of Ito's stories, and hated what I saw of it. So many people I know and respect love Ito's work though, so I keep periodically trying. What I need to do is pick up one of the collections of his Manga, however, I have such a pre-existing and totally unfair prejudice against Manga from my five years at Borders Books that I can never get myself to actually buy any of them. Now, there's a new Adult Swim adaptation of Uzumaki coming out, here's the trailer:  

Just based on this 'trailer' - which is really just a scene from the series - I think this may be my entry point into Ito's work. There's something so stark about this; a friend has talked to me at length about the mystery of Uzumaki, and it always sounds fascinating and urgent, which is kind of the vibe I get here. No release date information yet, but Uzumaki will air on Adult Swim, which is of course one of the "Hubs" on Max. 

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Playlist:

Colter Wall - Little Songs

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Black Mirror: Black Museum OST

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Rina Mushonga - In A Galaxy

Future Islands - Singles

Godflesh - Purge

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Assembly Line People Program - Eponymous EP

Deadguy - Work Ethic EP

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Drug Church - Hygiene

Aerosmith - Pump

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Knight of Wands - The 

• Two of Swords

• Four of Pentacles

I don't have the perspicacity to interpret this today, so I'm just leaving it here for future reference.

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Cold Sweats in the Basement, Baby!

 

Jonathan Grimm drove down a few days ago and we had a fantastic extended weekend drinking beer, watching movies and bullshitting. Grimm is definitely a stabilizing force in my life, not to mention a huge influence, and his visit really supercharged my creativity again. We capped the evening yesterday driving to Nashville and seeing Lord Buffalo, Valley of the Sun and Church of the Cosmic Skull at the awesome Basement East. It feels fortuitous indeed that the first show I see in my new state was at this venue, because I loved it. Basement East reminds me a lot of my favorite venue back in LaLaLand, Echo Park's Echoplex. I'll be keeping their calendar firmly in mind from here out, as it's the kind of venue I'll take pretty much any excuse to return to, again and again.

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Watch:

Curious to see this entire film. I love the idea of teenagers playing with a makeshift "Hand of Glory," though I didn't watch enough of the trailer to see if it actually came off a "hanged murderer." Makes me want to dig back into some of my Arcana and see what Eliphas Levi or, perhaps more appropriately, Alan Moore might have to say about how stringent the cocktail that produces that particular Magickal accoutrement is.

 

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Playlist:

Etta James - (Third Album)

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

Locrian - Return to Annihilation

Locrian - New Catastrophism

Godflesh - Nero EP

Behemoth - The Satanist

Etta James - The Second Time Around

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1

Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light

Various Artists - Jonathan Grimm's Stoner/Doom Spotify Playlist

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Holy Serpent - Endless

Bettye LaVatte - Scene of the Crime

Pigs x 7 - Viscreals

            

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Where this might normally make me think some form of unpleasant emotional change is jump up the road, I instantly read it as a lifting of my already generally unpleasant emotional state that dug in during my extended stay in LaLaLand and has left me off-kilter and unusually anxious since.

 

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Mascara - Half Light Aftermath

Hailing from France, Mascara is a band I know very little about. I picked this up after hearing the guys at Cinematic Void talk about the latest single, which this song is on. I really dig this and recommend checking out their Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Let's talk about David Lynch's Inland Empire.

 

I have to laugh at the idea that a trailer was cut for this film. I mean, this tells you nothing except Laura Dern is in the movie. I plan on writing a bit more extensively at some point, possibly on my Letterbxd, but for now, suffice it to say that while I love this film as an example of how David Lynch's mind works, I find it nearly inscrutable and a bit of a chore to watch in its entirety. I always think back to seeing this in Hollywood when it premiered. What I experienced that night was what I have always described as an absolute free fall - the film swallowed me whole, and I did not become lucid until the moment when Beck's "Black Tamborine" kicked in. Resurfacing, I had absolutely no idea how long I had been sitting in that theatre; it could have as easily been four hours as forty-five minutes. That's one of the best theatrical experiences of my life, the experience of being so taken over by a film. Translating that to at-home viewing, however, has been unbelievably difficult. I must have attempted to watch the Inland Empire DVD a half dozen times since it was released in '07 0r '08, and every time I failed. Until yesterday, when I watched it with headphones on. 

Yes. Headphones.

You would not believe the sound design in this, and while I still felt the burden of sitting through the entire three hours, I made it and am glad I did.  While I can't see myself ever frequenting this film like I do most of Lynch's other works, I'm glad I own it and look forward to whenever the next time I watch it - as long as the tv I watch it on has blue tooth.

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Support:

Jonathan Grimm has his new Kickstarter up, and I'm blown away by the artwork he's produced for this.

 

I've known Grimm for a long time, and he has come a long way with his art. In the last year, however, his talent has grown exponentially, as has his business plan. Having all the risk removed from these campaigns before even launching them should instill a confidence in his fans and supporters that is equal to the awe his work inspires. Solid Dude, Incredible Artist. Honored to call him a friend.

 

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Playlist:

Thou - Rhea Sylvia

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone

Anthrax - Persistence of Time 

Mascara - Hla-11Tf (single)

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Mascara - Cameo Blue Estate EP

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Card:

Back to the Thoth deck for today's single card pull:

The Airy aspect of Water, so Will applied to Emotion. Sounds like this is still pointing to that same Emotional Breakthrough I keep missing on my recent daily spreads - and I believe I just figured it out. In jogging back through the other posts, I realized I've been reading these in a completely distracted state. On Friday, 1/20/23 my Pull had an Ace of Cups at its center, however, the two days this week I mistakenly read as a reiteration of that were actually Ace of Wands, thus Intellectual Breakthrough. Or an achievement of Will. This, I believe is a reference to a slight incoming lifestyle adjustment in terms of finally being removed from my salaried Associate Manager position I stepped down from in August when I moved and shifted to a work-from-home position. Not a huge change, but you'll be seeing a lot fewer picks for NCBD for starters. Hence, Will Power Adjustment.

Antonio Sánchez feating Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

New music from world-renowned drummer Antonio Sanchez. This is the first single off his upcoming Shift (Bad Hombre, Vol. 2) album, and it features Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. You can order the new album  HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat

10/2 - Barbarian

10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)

10/4 - Phenomena

10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)

10/6 - The Dark Backward

10/7 - Sick/The Beyond

10/8 - Werewolf By Night

10/9 - Something in the Dirt

10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna

10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty

10/12 - Smile

10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)

10/14 - Halloween Kills

10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space

10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth

10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2

10/19 - 976-EVIL

10/20 - Alison's Birthday/Tone Deaf

10/21 - Elviria's Haunted Hills/Popcorn

10/22 - Resolution

10/23 - The Endless

10/24 - VHS 99

10/25 - Tigers Are Not Afraid

10/26 - Bliss

No matter how many times I watch Joe Begos' Bliss, it just gets better and more inspiring. 

There are ideas in this film that I think rank among the greatest contributions to the modern Vampire myth, and the execution only helps seal that. My big regret from this year's Beyondfest was that I already had tickets to see Zeal and Ardor at the Echoplex when Begos' new film Christmas, Bloody Christmas screened. That's the first of his films I haven't seen on the big screen at Beyondfest since a bunch of friends and I saw Mind's Eye, which sealed my love of his aesthetic.

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Watch:

I finally got to see Moonage Daydream on the big screen. This was one I almost missed, but with my good friend Grez in town, we headed into Nashville to the wonderful Belcourt Theatre and saw a late showing. 

So how is it? Fantastic. Not a documentary with a narrative so much as it is a constantly evolving series of clips - interviews, performances, personal journal stuff - a slightly linear trajectory through David Bowie's life as an artist, or perhaps rather, a series of artists, dappled with some intimate peaks behind the thin, white curtain at the man behind those personas. Built for the big screen.

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Playlist:

King Woman - I Wanna Be Adored (single)

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (single)

Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws

David Bowie - The Next Day

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Pretty straightforward. 

Only five days left to get in on Grimm's Kickstarter for The Art of the Bound Tarot hardcover art book. I'm throwing down today, you should too if you dig the art on these glorious cards. Back the project HERE.

My First Autumn in Sixteen Years!!!

Now that I'm home and can partake properly, let's start things off in October with some Type O! This is the first time I'm experiencing Autumn since I moved from Chicago back in May of 2006, so I am EXCITED!!! Also, this is K's first Autumn ever, so it's even more of a thrill seeing the adorable wonderment that overtakes her as she watches the trees change, sits outside as a Thunderstorm rolls in, or sniffs the smell of the Dying Time that hangs in the wonderful Tennessee air.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Trick 'r Treat

2) Barbarian

3) Hellraiser ('84)

4) Phenomena

5) Sick

6) The Beyond

7) Hellraiser (2022)

8) Werewolf By Night

9) Something in the Dirt

10) Lux Aeterna

11) Grimcutty

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NCBD:

Pretty mellow pull this week, which is good, because I have books stacked up in my box at Rick's Comic City from the past two while I was away in LaLaLand. Here's what's on the menu for today:

I'm pretty behind on my reading, so I won't get to some of these for a while, especially if this catch-up pace at work persists (took my post-travel day off on Tuesday, as I worked until 4:30 PM Monday, then ubered to LAX and didn't land at BNA until around 1:20 AM. Collecting my bag and ubering home to Clarksville put my much-anticipated arrival at around 2:30 AM. So I was TIRED). 

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Playlist:

Sylvaine - Nova

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

The Flamingos - Best of Playlist

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Northern Boys - Party Time (single)

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right To Children

Stereolab - Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched On Vol. 5)

Cold Cave - Full Cold Moon

Rein - Reincarnated

Zombie - 2020

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Card:

I've been dying to get back to my Bound Tarot deck from Jonathan Grimm, especially since Grimm currently has a Kickstarter going for a full-on Art of the Bound Tarot Hardcover Book! You can check out and support the Kickstarter HERE. 

Today's spread:

So, delicate machinations will require a sacrifice to reveal hidden information? Also, and I almost never read the cards this way, but if you add 12+02+18 you get 32, or the day after 31 Days of Halloween, so perhaps I should set my sights on that as the day to release the free Kindle exclusive, which I originally hoped would land in October. 

Charles Bradley's Legacy

 

We lost a treasure when Charles Bradley died, five years ago today. I cracked out Changes a few weeks ago - it'd been a minute, and I'd forgotten just how awesome this man's music is.

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Watch:

I've not seen any of the films M. Knight Shamalan has released since his career's first iteration. I stopped before The Happening, and never really looked back. I've always thought M. Knight became a product of his own signature, so to speak. I don't think this was entirely his fault - the Sixth Sense created an expectation that all of his films would have that famous M. Knight twist, and of those original films, only Signs reigns worthy of revisiting in my head (granted, I've not revisited any of the others, but maybe one day). However, I am a HUGE fan of Servant, the show he brought to Apple TV, and thus, I'm willing to give him a chance. Also, and what I didn't know when I first wrote this, Knock at the Cabin is an adaptation of Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World.

Sold.

Extra sold when I see Rupert Grint is involved.

I'd seen some of the Harry Potter flicks previously, due to my ex being a big fan. I liked the third one, largely due to Gary Oldman. The rest I have next to no memory of, so my love of Grint stems from his portrayal of Julian on Servant. 

The film looks extremely tense and, though I stopped the trailer about two minutes in, sets up a pretty big "What the hell is happening here?" I haven't read the novel but have been meaning to since finishing Head Full of Ghosts back around the time its follow-up came out. 

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Playlist:

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

Charles Bradley - Changes

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Give the People What They Want

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Ambition should not outweigh responsibility. 

World Coming Down

 

Yesterday marked the 22nd anniversary of Type O Negative's World Coming Down. I can still remember driving to Threshold Music in Tinley Park to pick it up that first day, smoking up before driving home with it blasting in my minivan. It still haunts me today, as it did then, that my friend Jake did not live to hear the follow-up to October Rust.

The title track will always be my favorite among WCD's 13 tracks (if you count Skip it, and we are); this one is an emotional jackhammer.

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Watch:

Current obsession:

This show just gets Chicago perfectly. 

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Read:

Currently splitting my time between two short story collections that couldn't be more different:

First, Irvine Welsh's The Acid House. I started this with my third-ever reading of "A Smart Cunt", the novella that rounds out this collection. This was the first story by Welsh I ever read, back in the 90s. It made an enormous impression on me then, and still does now. From there I cherry picked a few other stories: "Snuff," "Snowman Building Parts for Rico the Squirrel,""Sport For All," "The Granton Star Cause," and the Eponymous story, "The Acid House." I am very much enjoying this return to Welsh's writing, and can't wait to dip back into this for more.

Then this morning, inspired by the encroaching Halloween season, I went looking for my Ramsey Campbell Alone With the Horrors trade paperback I have, but couldn't find it. I haven't bought bookshelves for the new house yet, so a lot of my books are still in boxes. I gave a perfunctory search, but when I stumbled across Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds:

As I've related here previously, although I have the original, softcover novella The Visible Filth - the novella Babak Anvari's film Wounds is based on,  I picked this new volume up as soon as it hit the shelves in tandem with the release of the film. I've read The Visible Filth at least three times, but the other stories packaged with it in this particular volume have all only received one go-through. Until now, that is. So yesterday I started my day with The Atlas of Hell, a story that feels so much like Clive Barker to me, yet still stands tall on its own thanks to the clean and precise ton of Mr. Ballingrud's prose. I plan on picking through this one a story at a time over the coming month, and maybe going back and re-reading the stories in Ballingrud's first collection, North American Lake Monsters as well, if I can get around to finally watching the rest of the series based on that book HULU did a few years ago. Previously, I'd only watched two episodes of Monsterland (produced by Anvari), not because they weren't great, but maybe because the two I saw were ultra disturbing. In a good way, but also in a real way. Which is the goal, however, sometimes you have to work up to that sort of thing. 

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9

The Cramps - Stay Sick

The Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba

Misfits - Static Age

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

The center and left card go along with  the rejection notice I received this morning for a short story I submitted to a Horror Anthology last week. I'm having trouble figuring out the Queen though... or maybe I'm not.

Calling Dr. Fucker

A lot of Cramps creeping into the rotation of late. Here's one from their 2003 Fiends of Dope Island.

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Watch:

I've definitely figured out the movie theatre situation in Clarksville. Back in LaLaLand, post-COVID, AMC was the only big-box theatre I gave my money to. Not here; the AMC is inside the local mall, and my gut tells me it hasn't been renovated or even really kept up in any acceptable way since the late 90s/early 00s. The Regal, however, is the go-to. It's where I saw Barbarian the other night (this AMC doesn't appear to show anything other than the current big studio blockbusters), and it's where I saw Ti West's Pearl last night.

 

 The sequel to X, Pearl is a completely different movie - of course - but it's also of such craft and substance, I walked out of that theatre bowled over. I had no idea Ti West and Mia Goth were capable of this. Not that I ever sold them short, but Pearl contains an absolutely formidable performance by Goth, who also co-wrote the film with West.

Can't wait for Maxxine.

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Playlist:

Revocation - Netherheaven

Idles - Joy As An Act of Resistance

Idles - Crawler

Pailhead - Trait

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - 13 Above the Night

The Cramps - Fiends of Dope Island

Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Without a sharp eye to incoming changes, fortune can suffer. 

Melvins & Lustmord

 

It was not until just last week that I realized Melvins had collaborated with Lustmord on an album. THIS is mind-blowing stuff.

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NCBD:

We start this week's NCBD with the final issue of Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood. 

I Love this series. When they first announced they were doing one of these BW&B for Moon Knight, I was surprised. I'm hoping they do some other left-of-center characters, and that it wasn't just the Moon Knight Disney+ series that spurred this particular title. I'd love to see a Taskmaster or even, hell, a Wilson Fisk, Kingpin BW&B. Come on Marvel, let's see what you got!

One of my most anticipated series since the previous issue. This one is such a great heir to the Neil Gaiman/Vertigo legacy. 

Being that issue 3 just came out last week, I'm not entirely sure this will land today. We'll see. Either way, this series is worth the wait.

I feel like it's been quite some time since the previous installment of West of Sundown. That's not really true, I think I've just, you know, moved across country and completely restarted my life since issue 4. Can't wait to read this next chapter.

Probably my favorite cover with Scott Summers on it EVER. 

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Read:

There was a time when I bought every novel Irvine Welsh released the day they came out. That stopped after his 2012 Skag Boys. Not because I don't love Welsh's work. On the contrary, his prose is a HUGE influence on my own, and being that I had shifted to working on a genre series, I was afraid that influence would hinder my completion of the first Shadow Play novel. Shadow Play ultimately took another seven years to finish, starting and re-starting it. In between, I cranked out a lot more genre work, always keeping Welsh at bay.

Last Sunday, the damn burst.

I'm a saver - if I discover an author who already has a few novels on the shelf, I'll always save one. So was the case with Welsh's 1995 novel Marabou Stork Nightmares. Well, after learning Welsh had just released a follow-up Ray Lennox novel to Crime with The Long Knives. I realized I've now missed five Welsjh novels including this one. To quote Lebowski, "this will not stand!"

So I cracked open Marabou and cannot put it down.

It's crazy to think this was Welsh's second published novel. The narrative is written in the same kind of experimental fashion that Filth is - I don't want to try and explain it here, but needless to say, Welsh finds a pretty insane way to move between main character Roy Strang's coma-narrative and his real life and what he hears while he's inside the coma, bubbling up just below the surface of waking. Which Roy does not want to do. I love Welsh's work so very much, I can't believe I've been away from it this long.

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Playlist:

Pink Mountaintops - Peacock Pools

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head 

Megadeth - Rush in Peace

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

Anthrax - Attack of the Killer Bs

Patty Smythe - The Warrior (single)

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic

Scott H. Biram - Nothing But Blood

Amigo The Devil - Born Against

The Mysterines - Reeling

Young Widows - Settle Down City

Breather Resist - Charmer

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

The way that I will choose to accomplish something will usher in notable change, part of which will be condemnation by someone I respect. 

I've got a BIG new project in the works, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people - not necessarily people I know - will give it a big eye roll just for what it is. Unfortunate. "The work that transforms the medium." 

I hope.

Even Paper Girls Need to Rock N Roll

 

I'll never forget the first time I heard Metal Church. My second concert ever was at the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park, Il. 1991, Operation: Rock n' Roll. Metal Church (The Human Factor Tour), Dangerous Toys (Hellacious Acres), Motorhead (1916 Tour), Judas Priest (Painkiller Tour), and Alice Cooper (Trash). As we exited the amphitheater, we were handed cassette compilations that featured a song from all the bands that played, plus Cycle Sluts From Hell, Alice in Chains, and I don't remember who else.

Unfortunately, I don't think I still have this tape, despite having a box filled with tapes that I've lugged with me across the country twice now. Regardless, the Metal Church song on this was "Date With Poverty," and thus, my constant revolutions of this tape burrowed it deep into my brain. 

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Watch:

We finished the regular season of Netflix's The Sandman, then were super happy to see the bonus episode drop with two stories culled from the third TPB collection Dream Country. Both Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope were every bit as faithful adaptations of the source material as the overall show was. I really hope they renew this one.

Incidentally, a new episode of The Horror Vision went out today. We do a spoiler-free reaction to The Sandman, and talk about a whole bunch of other things as well, from my first viewing of Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, to seminal 80s flick Popcorn, to the unique and disturbing films of Andrey Iskanov. Check it out in that little widget just above and to the right, and if you dig, follow us on your favorite Podcast Platform. 

Next up, the first episode of Paper Girls. I am a HUGE fan of the comic, but this first episode felt like the show was cramming A LOT into one episode. Still, I'm in for the haul, so hoping it smooths out a bit. 

This is another one I really hope hits its stride; Brian K Vaughn fans already had one heartbreak in the last twelve months with Y The Last Man being tossed out after only one season, so hopefully, Paper Girls will hit its mark and find an audience:

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Read:

I finished T.E.D. Klein's The Ceremonies yesterday. Wow. What a book. It's always fantastic to find a literary Horror novel, and this is definitely that. The Ceremonies breathes for a large part of its 600-page length, and the story is all the better for it. This is the kind of prose I love most, where the author isn't concerned with hitting beats or creating a page-turning momentum. The story unfolds slowly, primarily with character development, and when things climax in the final 50 or so pages of the book, it feels well-earned.

Loved this. Can't wait to grab Dark Gods, also recently republished by PS Publishing. Also, a note in reference back to my original post about this edition of The Ceremonies when I first received it: despite my fears, the spine on this one actually held up beautifully. Way to go, PS! You guys rock, thank you for bringing Klein's work back into print, I was getting dangerously close to paying upwards of $50 on eBay for a beat-up old MM paperback copy of Dark Gods before you swept in and saved the day.

Unfortunately, I realize now I missed out on a gorgeous Hardcover with Slipcase edition, but that's okay. 

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Playlist:

Various - Every Day (Is Halloween) Small Cat, Big Yard Playlist

Various - Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards Playlist

Underworld - 1992-2002

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Metal Church - The Human Factor

Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks

Various - Return of the Living Dead Soundtrack

King Woman - Doubt EP

Sharon Jones and the Dap Tones - Give the People What They Want

The Devil's Blood - The Thousand Fold Epicentre

Anthrax - Worship Music

Forhist - Eponymous

David Lynch and Mark Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Revelation can Strengthen Will, however, Emotional persistence can hamper Will. I'm not entirely sure what this is speaking to at the moment, but I'll do some reading later today and see if I can't get a better read on this. 

P.G. X3

After a recent text conversation with Mr. Brown, I fell down a Melvins rabbit hole yesterday. I hadn't heard 2010's The Bride Screamed Murder since back around the time when it came out, and even then it wasn't an album that impacted me at the time (a lot of times, if I'm not in a "Melvins Mood," their shit goes right past my head, then I hear it again at some point and love it immediately). Bride is a fantastic record, one of my favorites of theirs from the last ten years, but the album closer "P.G. X3" might be my favorite track by the band since "A History of Bad Men", on 2006's (A) Senile Animal. 

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Watch:

My excitement for this is building!

While I wasn't blown away by Season Four at its start, by the end they had me again. The announcement that Mike Barnes returns in Season Five has me think this is definitely an "All the soldiers in a row" moment for the show. 

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Playlist:

Various - Every Day (Is Halloween):  Playlist

Melvins/Dumb Numbers - Broken Pipe EP

Melvins - Five Legged Dog

Melvins - Bride Screamed Murder

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

Melvins & Jello Biafra - Sieg Howdy!

Melvins - The Crybaby

Various - That Texas Blood Issue #1 Playlist: The Casserole Dish

Various - Ben Wheatley "A Field In England" Non Offical Invada Playlist

Sinoia Caves - The Enchanter Persuaded

Majeure - Mass Flashback

Tanya Tucker - Delta Dawn (single)

Brainiac - Bonsai Superstar

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance

Palms - Eponymous

Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hit Vol. 2

Sharon Jones and the Dap Tones - Give the People What They Want

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Here's a direct commentary on something I've known for some time. As I've gotten back into reading and thinking about the practice of Magick, the major impediment to me actually doing very much with it, is drinking. Which, averaging four beers a night right now, is something I probably do too much of. 

A Drop For Every Hour

 

 Mr. Brown has been telling me to check out Amigo the Devil for months, and while I know I downloaded and listened to part of his most recent album Born Against at some point, I must have been distracted. I say this because he reminded me again this past Friday, and the text just happened to arrive at a moment when I was looking for something new to listen to. One time through Born Against was not enough. This one is spectacular. A little Firewater at times, a little Waits, a touch of Zappa even. Really unique and enthralling. Also, laugh out loud funny at times. Born Against is out on Liars Club Records and can be purchased HERE.

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NCBD:

With the contagious period of my plague time over, I'll be heading back to Rick's Comic City to pick up this week's books for NCBD (and wearing a mask just to be extra careful around the employees):

Judgement Day has been pretty good so far, minus that Eve of Judgement title. I find that, after trying multiple times, I just don't like the Eternals as characters. That said, the end of last week's Judgement Day #2 took a very interesting turn, so as long as I don't flip through this and find it Eternal-centric, I'll be picking it up.

I still need to track down issue 1 of Daniel Warren Johnson's Do A Powerbomb, but even after jumping in on issue 2, I'm sold. Interdimensional Monster Wrestling, or something? Awesome, but more the fact that last issue made me cry. This guy is a fucking TREASURE. Makes me reconsider reading his Jurassic League, over at DC...

Well, this final chapter of Banner of War took a few extra weeks to come out, eh? Pretty sure this is my jumping-off point on Thor, but still interested in where Cates might take Hulk after this.

As long as this book stays focused on Madeleine and Illyana, I'm in. 

Have you heard The Horror Vision's dissection of the first eleven issues of this wonderful series? No? Here you GO.

I'm really digging this Clea Strange series quite a bit. I think it's kind of scratching an old urge that last year's Defenders series rekindled - reading a kind of out-of-the-way Marvel mini-series. There's a certain joy to be found in skulking around the less bombastic, tentpole corners of the Marvel Universe, and this series is doing a great job of doing what a lot of the big name characters' titles did back in the 80s, before Cap and the Avengers were household names. 

I had almost forgotten about this book and the fact that this issue should debut the new team!

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Playlist:

Jonathan Grim Art Playlist: John Music

Every day (Is Halloween) Newsletter Playlist: The Immortal 90s

Every day (Is Halloween) Newsletter Playlist: Liminal

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Perturbator - Nocturne City EP

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin - IV

Sharon Jones and the Dap Tones - Give the People What They Want

Underworld - Best of 1992-2002

True Widow - Circumambulation

Pseudo Echo - Autumnal Park

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hits Vol. 2

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Card:

I broke out The Raven Deck again. Haven't used it since I packed it, wanted to get its voice back in my head. I've had a couple of frustrating days with office set up stuff, so I definitely had that in mind when I drew:

So this reads pretty clear, but doesn't exactly answer my question. Pretty spot on, as The Hermit is exactly me at this point, having given up the world I knew and focused on a considerably more personal one. That took Strength, but the end result is a Life Change, in this case of massive degree. But we know all this already. So, I figured I'd draw with another deck to clarify:

The Chariot can be seen as a call-to-arms. Marshal the forces because there's conflict coming. In this case, I think I may be taking some luxuries that have come out of this new World too far, and that has weakened my methods, and my place. 

All super sound. I'm trying to throw money at problems, and meanwhile, not taking basic steps that cost nothing, but will help solidify the ground I'm standing on. Wealth is not the Chariot. It can be a part of it, but it can also be false armor. 

Rainbow Eyes!!!

I was sick as fuck with COVID all weekend, so when I wasn't attempting to finish setting up my office, I mostly spent laid out on the couch. Saturday night Ray, Anthony and I did a new episode of The Horror Vision - that's it in the corner on the handy little Spotify widget - a review/reaction to Prey, which I have watched twice now and loved. Being that it'd been so long since we did an episode, we had planned to cover a lot more than Prey, but as the night wore on, I felt increasingly like shit, and eventually had to call it, immediately passing out on the couch (not sleeping in our bed so as to try and prevent spreading Captain Tripps to K, who so far has been lucky enough to not show any symptoms). I woke up around 1:15 AM and, restless from the body aches - easily the worst part of this - I opened a beer and dialed up Shudder TV. The Slashics channel was showing Rocktober Blood, a movie I'd heard of but never actually saw. I caught the film right at the final act, which is essentially one enormous concert, where the fictional band plays four songs. 

All of those songs are awesome.

This is total 80s Hard Rock, but I don't care, this hit the fucking spot! Now, do I go back and watch the rest of the flick from the beginning? Not sure yet. But I definitely want to track down the soundtrack.

In looking online for the vinyl, I saw that Lunaris Records put out a new edition back in 2016, and it fetches a pretty penny on Discogs. Damn. What are the chances this gets a repress? Until then, I guess it's youtube.

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Watch:

Rocktober Blood left me in the mood for 80s Trash Cinema, so I followed it up with my first-ever viewing of Joseph Zito's 1981 Slasher flick The Prowler*:

 

Seeing that this one had recently returned to Shudder, I chose to watch it on the 2018 Joe Bob Briggs' Original Marathon. A somewhat perplexing film in that it spends A LOT of time roaming around looking for the killer in a pretty ineffectual and, frankly, time-wasting manner, I still enjoyed it overall. Plus, Thom Bray is in it, and I've long been a fan of him. Also, Tom Savini's effects are fantastic. And I suppose now I'm set in a tone for a while, because last night, I continued the 80s bender with... The OCTAGON!!!

 

I first saw this way back in the mid-80s. I was obsessed with Ninjas due to Larry Hama's G.I.Joe comic, so when I stumbled across the final act of The Octagon on WGN Channel 9's movie of the day, I was blown away! A Chuck Norris movie that looked like it had actually taken some of the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow storyline from Hama's opus and filmed it! 

Rewatching The Octagon last night, it didn't disappoint. This is by no means a "good" movie, but it's fun as hell. It's interesting how watching it now, I can see how Norris or Director Eric Karson - likely both - had ambitions for the film beyond the standard Martial Arts action movie fair. The film spends the first 2/3rds of its runtime slowly laying out and drawing us (via Chuck) into what is supposed to be an intricate story of international espionage. It doesn't completely work, however, I found it quite endearing that in order to give the audience intermittent doses of what they came for, it sets up a B-story early on that focuses on a bunch of nameless recruits at a Ninja Training Camp. So as the Norris-Mystery story meanders its often perplexing path, we continually cut away to the camp for low doses of Martial Arts fighting. 

Pretty slick.

The ending did not disappoint, and overall, although I'm not a huge fan of the Martial Arts Action Genre, this one really hit the spot. Also, the weird echoing voiceovers Norris does that serve as us hearing his character's inner monologue sound SO MUCH like the Central Scrutinizer from Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage album, that I found myself smiling every time I heard it.

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* Seeing that William Lustig's Blue Underground did a 4K Blu Ray of The Prowler a few years back, I was hoping to find a trailer for that. No dice. 

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Playlist:

Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams (single)

U.S. Girls - Half Free

Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown

The Contours and Dennis Edwards - Motown Rarities 1965-1968

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies EP

Amigo The Devil - Born Against

Man or Astro-Man? - 1000X

Man or Astro-Man? - Your Weight on the Moon

Man or Astro-Man? - Defcon 5...4...3...2...1

Man or Astro-Man? - Experiment Zero

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Soundgarden - Superunknown

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Various - Joe Begos' Bliss Soundtrack Playlist

Various - Roctober Blood OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Sometimes the solutions we come up with for our problems are short-sighted and end up causing a bigger pain in the end. It may be good to listen to someone else for a change.