Nick Fury Vs. SQÜRL

More new music from SQÜRL's upcoming album Silver Haze, out May 5th on Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

I've been pretty meh about all things Marvel, but I really want to watch this one:

 

I never read the comic storyline Secret Invasion, however, I like the idea A LOT and remember how Bendis would drop scenes that pointed to it years before it happened (remember Rick Jones showing up yelling about Skrulls being everywhere?). What I did not expect from this, and what totally hooked me with this trailer is how the Secret Invasion series draws inspiration from the 1989 prestige format, six-issue series Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D. - one of my favorite Marvel Comics stories EVER. Just by virtue of Fury facing most of this threat essentially alone (insofar as no major hero costars, or at least as we can ascertain from this trailer), it makes sense the creators would draw from that series, and knowing that makes me very excited.

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Playlist:

Hum - Downward is Heaven

David Bowie - Heroes

Clouds Taste Satanic - Tales of Demonic Possession

Shrinebuilder - Eponymous

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Viscerals

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of Sleeper

Eagulls - Eponymous

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Card:

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

I intended to do a three-card Pull, however, this one jumped out of the deck at me, and I thought I'd concentrate on that because, in a nutshell, Motivation - a form of Will - has been lacking and this is a nice cue to get my ass back in gear. I have been writing almost daily, however, not in increments of time and attention that would gather me the momentum I need to get back on track. I'll fix that today.

 

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Tasting the Flesh of God

 

Thanks to Mr. Brown for turning me into the fact that Hellfest 2022 is streaming all the bands' sets. Of course, I'm most interested in Godflesh, a band I still hold out the hope we'll be getting another new album from sooner rather than later. Justin K. Broadrick is a very prolific, very busy man, but how do you turn your back on your baby when your baby is Godflesh?

 

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NCBD:

Still out of town, but I'll probably pick these up anyway and just let my shop know not to pull.

Is this the end of the first arc for What's The Furthest Place From Here? or the start of a new one? 

Jesus, it's only been two weeks since the previous X-Men Red. Based on the events of that book, I'm REALLY looking forward to this one. 

Love this book, and the fact that I have no compass for how long this series is ultimately shaping up to be. Feels very open-ended, and like there could be a much bigger story here for Sonny and Xavier than I first suspected. Rick Remender - I love you!

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Watch:

I can remember seeing the opening to Lewis Teague's Alligator so long ago; the scene of the father flushing his little girl's pet baby alligator down the toilet has stayed with me for most of my life. Thanks to Shudder, I've finally seen the entire movie.

I LOVED this flick! First, I had no idea Robert Fucking Forster was the lead! Also, hell, what a great Alligator!

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Playlist:

Perturbator, Johannes Persson and Final Light - Final Light

Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

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Card:

Confusing influences speak to the idea that we may have a lot of questions at our inspection tomorrow. There's a lot of 'Authority' at play, and juxtaposed with Will and the expediency I always associate with the Knight of Swords, the mental stamina that card tends to radiate, I think we may need to make some decisions that will be completely ours, i.e. not the kind of thing we can refer to our Realtor, the inspector, or the unbelievably valuable advice my parents have given to us in all this.

Garmonbozia

Discovering Black Mare last week has sent me into a spiral with Sera Timms music. Following my own advice and clicking on that Bandcamp link for 2020's Death Magick Mother, I sat completely transfixed by the record yesterday in the wee hours of the morning. This record has an extremely ethereal quality. I can hear Pornography-era Cure, Cocteau Twins, and contemporaries, L.A.-based Chasm, but the space created within the walls of this aural shrine are all Timms's own. Turning this one on feels like stepping into an hour-long fog bank. Through the obfuscation, you see outlines of landmarks you think you recognize, except they're all wrong, and give you an immediate impulse to be at the ready.

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Watch:

A few weeks back, my cousin, Charles told me about the Youtube channel Twin Perfect's video, "Twin Peaks Actually Explained (No, Really)." I'd seen this floating around in my feed and ignored it. Despite the fact that I often create or take part in videos similar to this - well, NO video is similar to this one - I rarely watch them, and I certainly go out of my way to avoid any video that claims to explain any movies or shows I dig, most especially Peaks. However, Charles told me enough to get me interested, and if you'll recall, there was one other Twin Peaks Explanation video I took to heart a year or so ago - Wow Lynch Wow's "Was Mr. C Victorious?" This new video, then, wasn't exactly unprecedented. What was unprecedented was the fact that, after watching about the first twenty minutes of this 4 hour+ video, I truly believed in my heart of hearts that holy F'ing shite - this guy COMPLETELY EXPLAINS TWIN PEAKS. It's not what you think it's going to be, it's far better. I cannot recommend this one enough unless you do not want to have the show explained.

Seriously, without spoiling anything, when you get to the part about what the light shining on Laura Palmer's face at the end of FWWM means, you'll know if you're on board or not.

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Playlist:

Black Mare - Death Magick Mother

Metallica - Seek and Destroy (single)

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Faith No More - The Real Thing

King Woman - Celestial Blues

Windhand - Eternal Return

Conan - Monnos

Guns N' Roses - ABSURD (wow, this is awful)

Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs - Original Series Soundtrack

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Card:

Okay, so what am I battling here? I feel like most everything is in line.

Jerry Cantrell - Atone

The youtube algorithm surprised me Saturday night by throwing the new Jerry Cantrell single my way. I had no idea this album was on the horizon, and despite my hot/cold relationship with Mr. Cantrell's other solo albums - all of which I like, but none that have really stuck with me like, say, the previous AIC album did - I really liked this song. What's more, and this is extremely rare, the video really helped drive home how I felt about the song. I feel like Cantrell is aging both as a human and a songwriter in a very elegant manner, and that brings great joy to my heart. Alice in Chains was, after all, birthed in a pretty severe amount of trauma.

The album, Brighten, drops on December 17. You can pre-order it HERE, though all the vinyl appears to be sold out at this point.

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Watch:

Rewatched a couple of movies this past week that I'd been wanting to for quite some time. First, I finally picked up a copy of Dan O'Bannon's 1984 classic Return of the Living Dead on Blu-Ray. Despite my posting the Scream Factory trailer here, the version I purchased was the MGM release, simply because I didn't want to shell out $35 for it.

 

This film is a rarity to me: despite the comedic elements, RoTLD remains one of the most disturbing and frightening flicks I know. There's something to the starkness of the sets that creates an isolated feeling that permeates and really adds to the siege elements. Also, the entire idea that the dead are compelled to feast on the brains of the living because, as the torso-zombie lady says, "The pain of being dead," really disturbs me. Especially after Freddie dies and begins to repeatedly scream, "It hurts! It hurts!" 

Next, a few months back when Severin announced they would be remastering and releasing Gabriel Bartalos's Skinned Deep, I pre-ordered it. This is one my friend Dennis gave me back in the day, part of the original Fangoria's "Gore Zone" three-pack that also included the Irish zombie film Dead Meat, and The Last Horror Movie. I sold most of these back when my life was imploding in 2014 and had pretty much assumed Skinned Deep was something I had to consign to the aethers of the post-physical media world.

Enter Severin.

This is an extremely bizarre take on the backwoods slasher film that transports the crazy family of killers to the plains of the Southwest (I think). Watching it Saturday night, there's a really unique, really heightened 'You're where you don't belong" feeling to the flick, to the point that, combined with the over-the-top characters, I felt an almost dream logic over the entire story. I ended up conking out near the end, so I have to go back this week and watch it again.

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Playlist:

Metal Church - Blessing in Disguise

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

The Replacements - Tim

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun

Peter Gabriel - So

The Maness Brothers - Tammie Jean (single)

Cloud Cruiser - I: Capacity 

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Card:

 

This card always tells me to stay stream-lined, keep my head down in the fray, and refuse to relinquish what I've set my sights on.

The New King Woman is Vicious Fun!

 

Holy cow! A new King Woman track dropped two days ago and it's a doozy! Bloody Disgustingt mentioned an Elizabeth Bathory vibe, and while I definitely see that, even more I see the influence of Joe Begos's Bliss. Either way, Celestial Blues is out July 30th on Relapse Records, and you can pre-order it HERE.

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Watch:

After watching Cody Calahan's Vicious Fun last night, I'm thinking this may end up as my favorite movie of the year. If not numero uno, it's up there. What is for sure, at least thus far, is Ari Millen - who some will know as Mark/Ira/Rudy/a bunch of other clones on Orphan Black - seems cinched as my favorite performance of the year

 

This one's a BLAST, and I can't recommend it enough.

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Playlist:

The Kills - Midnight Boom

The Kills - No Wow

Entropy - Liminal

The Casket Lottery -  Survival is for Cowards

King Woman - Celestial Blues (pre-release singles)

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

King Woman - Doubt EP

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

Led Zeppelin - I

Led Zeppelin - IV

King Woman - I Wanna Be Adored (single)

Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory

Chairlift - Something

Polica - Give You the Ghost

Turquoise Moon - Sunset City

 

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Card:

 

Crash Course? Brain Surgery? Either way, I will try to keep my wits about me today.

Isolation - Day 58 Death Dies

Friday nights have been a thing of beauty and comfort ever since Shudder brought Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In back. This week, JBB did Frank Henelotter's bat-shit crazy Brain Dead and Dario Argento's Profundo Rosso (Deep Red). What a line up!

Watching Deep Red, I'd forgotten how much I love this score, and I'm kicking myself for not buying it when Waxwork Records put it out a few years ago. That said, finding the original version on Apple Music this morning, I realized that there's so much music on this one overall, I find myself wondering if the WW edition only has the Goblin stuff, which while iconic and amazing, would miss what might be my favorite track on the soundtrack altogether.

Originally, I'd mistaken this track for Goblin, however, Italian Jazz musician Giorgio Gaslini is the actual author. I love all the music in Deep Red, but this one... this gives the iconic theme from the film a run for it's money.

**

TKO Studios is creating major waves with an amazing business model. This is a new comic publisher, with exclusive, new titles by established creators, who sell online AND give 50% of the price to any comic book store you choose. I just placed an order for Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta's Sentient and sent half of the $19.99 for the trade paperback to Atomic Basement Comics in the LBC. Next up, probably Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli's Murder Mystery Goodnight Paradise, so I can send half to The Comic Bug.

This is the kind of business ingenuity that will see our beloved Comics Industry through the current crisis, and I'm proud to help out. I've been trying to patronize both my shops when I can, but with their limited, by appointment hours, it's been tough to balance it with my schedule. TKO is definitely going to help with that.

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Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vista III (Saturnian Poetry)
X- Under the Big Black Sun
Blut Aus Nord - MoRT
Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutis Meae
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liver III EP
White Ward - Love Exchange Failure
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Blut Aus Nord - Odinist: Destruction of Reason By Illumination
Crystal Castles - (II)
Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste
Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus
Hall and Oats - Essentials
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Roachpowder - Atomic Church
Ministry - From Beer to Eternity
Ministry - Alert Level (Quarantine Mix) Single
White Lung - Paradise
The Neighbourhood - Wiped Out
The Neighbourhood - I Love You.
X- Alphabetland
Lead Into Gold - The Sun Behind the Sun
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Revocation - Deathless
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Goblin/Giorgio Gaslini - Profundo Rosso

Card:

Time to saddle up and finish this fucking book!

2018: October 15th

Alien Sex Fiend - Not your father's Death Rock band. Well, then again, I suppose this very much could have been your father's Death Rock band. Never mind. Among the weirdest things I've ever heard.

31 Day of Horror continued yesterday, but I've already told you about The Apostle. Afterward, K and I plowed through the first five episodes of the Netflix/Mike Flanagan epic The Haunting of Hill House. I was a bit uncertain at first, but quickly came around. It has Flanagan's time weaving technique, the one that makes Occulus so unique. I dig it, probably not as much as I'd hoped I would, but for watching five episodes in a binge -something I haven't had the time to do in forever - it was good.

We wanted to make it through the first five because an article popped up last week HERE on Bloody Disgusting where Flanagan suggests people watch the first five, then go back and watch them again before continuing on to episodes 6-10. This is based on a revelation in ep. 5 that changes the way you will see things in the first half if you watch them again with that in mind. I don't feel this is necessary at all. Maybe some people will; I'm not usually the guy who figures out the twist ahead of time - I don't ever want to be - but I had this one in mind from about episode 3 or 4, so a re-watch wouldn't do anything for me. Now we just have to find the time to do the rest and a movie a day until the end of the month. It literally required me taking a mental health day from my weekend to do this much of the show - no grocery shopping, I skipped the HWA meeting, didn't even write. I needed it though, and so did K. 'Adulting' feels extra hard of late. Boo-hoo, right? Well, it's all relative.

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

Playlist from yesterday? There wasn't one. All visual content.

Card of the day:

Do I have some rationalizing to do? I do; skipping life for a day to watch TV makes me feel a bit weird, especially the HWA meeting and writing, so I've been rationalizing it since. As my good friend Missi said in a text yesterday, "Sometimes u need a break. It's not a crime."

Words of wisdom Lloyd. Words. Of. Wisdom.

Thanks Missi!

2018: August 8th - American Horror Story 8 Teaser

You put a chick in a gas mask and lingerie and I'm THERE! Seriously, I'm sure none of this imagery will actually tie into the story of American Horror Story season 8: Apocalypse, but it's cool as all hell. I've always been pretty hot and cold with the show: still haven't seen Freakshow or Coven, had pretty much given up until Hotel and Roanoke, both of which I loved, so I'll definitely be watching the new one.

NCBD. Cautiously excited for this:

Playlists from the last two days:

8/06:
Shockwaves Podcast #
Windhand - Grey Garden (Pre-release single)
Tubular Bells (part 1)
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Wrekmeister Harmonies - Light Falls

8/07:
Cypress Hill - Eponymous
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Steven Moore - The Mind's Eye OST

Cards from the last three days:

Knight of Swords was today's pull, and interestingly enough, I'd been anticipating each of the previous two days. Hence, I thought I'd read them all together as a spread.

Endeavors large and exploratory end in abrupt disappointment, only to have a contrary result arrive swiftly on that disappointment's heels. So one step back, two steps forward, so to speak.

2018: August 1st

Another fantastic Airiel song that the boys played Sunday at the Echoplex. Yes, I'm still living off the energy from the show - I'm waking up with Tennis System as I type this.


NCBD: The return of Rick Remender and Jerome Opena's Seven to Eternity!!!

Playlist from yesterday:

Algiers - The Underside of Power
Airiel - Winks & Kisses: Melted EP
Airiel - Molten Young Lovers
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
The Go Go's - Vacation

Also, broke back into the Shockwaves Horror Podcast and I am certifiably sold on it now. Episode 104 has an interview with Paul Tremblay, whose 2015 novel A Head Full of Ghosts should be on every Horror Hound's reading list. Best take on a possession story in ages. And... in discussing his literary peers, Mr. Tremblay mentions that one of my favorite recent novellas, Nathan Ballingrud's The Visible Filth, just wrapped filming with Babak Anvari at the helm, the release date slated for March, 2019. I could not be more excited for that!

Card of the Day:

Can indicate Occult Study. Interesting, as I've just begun a re-read on Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham's Nameless, and long-time readers here will remember I got into a little bit of trouble doing occult research/annotations for that series back when it came out.

2018: July 17th

Junior Jr. just released the video for Guns A Blazin'! With the final issue of my DwC co-host Mike Wellman and his debonair artist extraordinaire counter part Rafael Navarro's cross-time comic epic close at hand, I can't think of a better song to start my dreary Tuesday morning with.

Playlist from Yesterday:

John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Card of the day:

Significance of the primary subject of this card - Knight on Horse, flying into the fray. Going toward your goal with no distraction. Funny then, that this morning I feel so distracted. Leave it to the cards to call me out on it.

2018: June 2nd

I woke up late in the morning and spent a few hours trying to finish off Lords of Chaos; the book has become increasingly unpleasant (not the writing, but the subject matter) and the authors track Black Metal-related atrocities across the globe. It feels as though I'm reading a true crime book, and that's not a genre I dabble in because, frankly, I become too disturbed. At any rate, I may not finish the book, but if I do, I decided I need something to counter balance the negativity. The above musical suite is helping, as is the source of my discovery of it. Years ago David Lynch wrote a book called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. I bought it and was able to shake his hand and have him autograph it - one of those rare autograph opportunities I took advantage of - but never really read it. I'm doing so now, and it's magical. I love this man so much, he has been such a positive, life-affirming influence on me in every way. Reading the book and listening to Andre Previn and the London Philharmonic Orchestra's version of Weber's Adagio for Strings - which Lynch name drops in the book when briefly talking about The Elephant Man as an example of marrying music to picture - is almost too much beauty to reflect on, and it has definitely salvaged my mood after reading about misguided miscreants committing horrendous crimes in the name of non-existent deities.

Playlist from 6/01:

The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
Ghost - Prequelle
Ministry - Animositisomina
Zombi - Shape Shift

Card of the day:

The Fiery aspect of Air. I need to get my arse in gear and express my Will today, because thus far, other than this meager post, all I've done is consume.