I fell back pretty hard core back into Beach Slang's 2020 album The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City. What a great record. Will in be in my top ten this year? I guess it's about time I start trying to figure that out.
Watch
I've always wondered why people don't use James Duval in more movies. I love the guy, and here, surrounded by C. Thomas Howell, Ray Wise and James Hong, well, looks like a slam dunk to me:
See what I mean?
Playlist:
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Dance with the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny
Van Halen - 1984
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Card:
Realization of false promises? Is this America's indictment? What's that mean for the never-ending side show currently stressing everyone the F*&k out?
Not only does Thomas Williams run the best damn music blog around, but he contributes A LOT to Joup, the online magazine my good friend Grez started a few years ago and I help run. One of Tommy's columns is Thank God for VOD, where he begins every entry with the acknowledgement that he isn't able to go to the theatre as much as he would like (same here) but VOD helps him see most of what he wants to. Of course, coupled with the difficulty heading out to the movies these days is the fact that a lot of the movies guys like Tommy and I want to see don't even open in more than one theatre in any given major population center, for a weekend at best, so VOD is a godsend. But I'm behind in my movies and I finally made it around to one Tommy wrote about last june, Joe Begos's directorial debut, Almost Human. I liked it a lot, it was a great nod to 80s sci fi horror, specifically as Tommy points out early Carpenter, and Begos crafted a very specific late night UPN tone - also as Tommy points out. I love the nostalgic approach when it's done right. And Almost Human is - there's definitely room for him to grow, but I got the same vibe from Almost Human as I did from Ti West's The Roost when it first came out, and if that's any indication, there's sure to be some great stuff following this debut.
Afterward watching the film, while researching Begos and the cast on IMDB, I stumbled across the trailer for Adam Green's new film Digging up the Marrow, and after watching it I am VERY interested. First, you had me at Ray Wise. Second, Green will forever get the benefit of the doubt from me because of Frozen. No, not the disney movie. I'm talking about the film where three college kids get stranded on a ski lift over a long weekend. Can you say traumatic?
Anyway, looking forward to seeing this quite a bit. And if you haven't given Almost Human a chance yet, you should. It's streaming on Netflix so that makes it even more accessible to most. Also, directly after I posted this I flipped over to Bloody Disgusting and found an article and pictures of Looper star Noah Segan on the set of Begos's follow-up to Almost Human, The Mind's Eye. Excited!
Via Bloody Disgusting. This looks fantastic. The tone the lighting alone conveys is worth the price of admission - or VOD if it doesn't make it into wide release. And really, you had me at "Ray Wise" but John Waters doing a cameo? FAN-tastic!
The newest issue of Rue Morgue is on the newsstand and as you can no doubt discern from the picture it has a nice, juicy Twin Peaks cover story in honor of the 25 year anniversary of the night Special Agent Dale Cooper opened that mason jar of scorched engine oil and entered the waiting room via Glastonbury Grove and its circle of twelve sycamore trees. Now, if you've been reading about Twin Peaks for a long time as I have - pretty much since it aired - the Rue Morgue story is not too much that you haven't heard before. But it's done really well and there are some unique insights by Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee and Jennifer Lynch. And unlike Fangoria, which sadly pretty much blows - or at least did the last time I checked - Rue Morgue is a fantastic horror mag that I don't get to read often enough. There's also a great article on Oculus, a movie I think I was unfairly dismissing due to billboard proliferation around LA but after reading said article I'm actually looking forward to.
