Saturday, July 16, 2022
XL/RZ
Friday, September 3, 2021
Leviathan the Fleeing Serpent
Watch:
Playlist:
Card:
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Rob Zombie's Narcoleptic Sunday
While scrolling through instagram a few days ago, I stumbled upon the fact that there's a new album coming from Rob Zombie in March. I've posted my conflicted musings about Mr. Zombie in these pages before, and that more or less remains. Do I like this song? Well, here's the thing. This stuff is made to be played loud in a room with distractions. Other people at a party, or, since we can't do that at the moment, while you're cleaning. Just plugging in the headphones and focusing too much on Rob Zombie's songs make a lot of them disintegrate into the broad-stroke caricatures they are. Even this video feels lazy; notice there are no wide shots to place Zombie or his band on the stages or even in the same room that the brief, initial, establishing stage shots set up. Now, this is obviously due to COVID, so of course, I don't want to bag on them for being safe. It just could have used something else; most of RZ's vocals are delivered in Extreme Close Up shots with no context, and they're delivered with next to no energy. This robs the video, and subsequently the song, of the momentum the guitars and rhythm ride.
I'm really reading too much into this, aren't I?
Anyway, a new track drops in a few days, so we'll see how that is. I usually click into an RZ groove for a week or so every year or two, play the hell out of the White Zombie stuff I dig, then cycle through his solo albums (Or better yet, curated playlists of the standouts from those albums), and then move on. Pre-order The Lunar Injection Kool Aid and Eclipse Conspiracy HERE from Nuclear Blast Records.
READ:
Playlist:
Card:
Back to my full-size Thoth this morning:
Uncompromising honesty; Balance. I can't help read something like this as advice to stock my personal arsenal with altruistic accouterments for the day.
Friday, October 30, 2020
1 More Day 'til Halloween
Chock this up to unexpected. I finished my movie last night and sat down at my computer, only to stumble into a premiere for the first single from the upcoming first Remix album from Deftones - Black Pony. This is for the 20th Anniversary of their seminal album White Pony, which will always be special to me because it's where I began following the band. I'm not really one for remix albums, but this version of Knife Party - done by Purity Ring no less, a group I was briefly obsessed with during the later half of the 00s - is pretty fantastic on headphones. I'll definitely be giving the entire Black Pony a spin when it drops.
31 Days of Halloween:
NCBD
Playlist:
Meg Myers - SorryWednesday, October 2, 2019
31 Days of Horror Begins!
"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."
That runs through my head pretty much from the time Beyondfest begins at the end of September, all the way through November 1st, and this year it's even more pronounced. Because of the late night at Joe Bob and Tammy and the T-Rex Monday night, I took October 1st off, which in turn gives me a nice head start on 31 Days of Horror. I started with a Rob Zombie double feature: I chose House of 1000 Corpses to kick the entire month off as a tribute to Sid Haig. From there I segued into 31, although that essentially played in the background as I started my writing day. BIG breakthroughs on the second book of Shadow Play, now I just have to work them into my outline, rejigger a few things, and then commence writing.
**
Finally: here's a newly expanded version of that Halloween Playlist I've been listening to for the last year or two.
**
31 Days of Horror:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
**
Playlist from 10/01:
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Opeth - Deliverance
Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Pignatelli - Phenomena OST
Zonal - Zonal (Single)
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond
Mark Korven - The Witch OST
**
No Card today.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
RIP Sid Haig
Moments after I posted yesterday's page here I learned that Sid Haig passed away. This seemed inescapable after all the reading I'd done late last week about why he had such a small role in Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell, and sure enough, one week to the day after the film's release, we lost Captain Spaulding. I can think of no great tribute than the scene I've posted above; other than the intro to Way of the Gun, this is possibly my favorite to any movie ever.
**
This record is absolutely fantastic!
After stumbling across it's premature release late last week and posting about it here, I ended up truncating my first listen; last week was my on-call shift at work, and during those weeks I always refrain from smoking, which I knew I wanted to do for my first go-through on this one. So yesterday, after turning the phone over to the next person in the rotation, I returned home after work and hit the ol' dugout, then put on my headphones and lay on the bed listening - and I mean full-attention, not doing anything else listening - to the album all the way through.
It's epic. My favorite Blut Aus Nord record since Memoria Vetusta II, probably because this feels like a direct sequel to that record, even more than Memoria Vetusta III does. Epic, cosmic, and majestic, Hallucinogen takes me straight to the stars, and I love it.
**
NCBD: This will be the first week in number of weeks that anything I read comes out, so I'm pretty excited:
After mis-reporting it last month, here it is, just in time to coincide with my re-read of the series: Black Science ends with issue forty-three!
Two Remender books in the same week - always a great thing!
**
Playlist from 9/23:
Air - Talkie Walkie
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
**
Card of the day:
Despite not having a formal writing session yesterday, I did a pretty good deal of research and I had a massive breakthrough on a major aspect of the overall Shadow Play story. It would seem the suggestion for today is to do a little housekeeping and translate some of those notes into actual story Bible material.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Blood Machines Official Trailer
SO happy I helped kickstart this one! There are two slots for this year's Beyondfest still to be announced - I'm hoping one of them is Blood Machines. My hope for the other slot is either Babak Anvari's Nathan Ballingrud adaptation Wounds or the Soska Sisters' Rabid.
Speaking of Beyondfest 2019, I was able to get tickets to almost everything I wanted:
Joe Bob Brigs - How Rednecks Saved Hollywood
Tammy and the T-Rex
Joe Begos Double Feature: Bliss and VFW, with Begos and crew in person
Tom Atkins Triple Feature with Mr. Atkins attending: Halloween III Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps and John Carpenter's The Fog
The only flick I missed out on is Richard Stanley's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space with Stanley in person, but I'm cool with what I was able to score. There's also tickets available for a bunch of other films I'm toying with, but I'll probably decide some of those last minute since most are during the week.
**
NCBD - so weird. Third NCBD in a row with no books, and I'm not particularly bothered. In fact, probably to sub the weekly comic experience, I chomped down hard on my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science, which I erroneously reported ended last month, but actually ends next week with issue forty-three. As of last night, I am eight issues into the re-read, and having an absolute blast with it. Such great world building, both story wise and with Scalera's incomparable art.
**
I've been doing a lot of digital reading. So much so, that it's becoming a bit of a problem. Kindle books are so cheap it's insane. Case in point, this was $0.99:
Forty freakin' stories by a variety of different authors. Some of those, like the Lovecraft and the Howard I already have, but there's a ton of stuff I do not. In fact, what led me to this one was researching T.E.D. Klein, whose OOP paperback Dark Gods keeps coming up in conversation as essential reading to further Lovecraft's mythos, but which runs for about $50+ on eBay. Klein's story The Events at Poroth Farm is included in this one, and it also comes recommended as a great place to start with his work. Instead of that one though, I started with a Clark Ashton Smith, whose SciFi/Fantasy work I adore, but whose entries in the mythos I've never read before. I'm about a quarter of the way through The Return of the Sorcerer, and it is, as I suspected, fantastic. Smith's handling of Lovecraft's work actually reminds me a lot Howard's, whose Lovecraft-related work I actually probably like better than Lovecraft's. Sacrilege, I know, but the man can write. And so can Smith.
**
Well, I went and saw Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell two nights ago. I didn't like it. My short review is up on Letterbxd HERE. I'll add that I am happy RZ made the movie he wanted to, it just wasn't to my tastes or what I wanted from a sequel to two movies I adore. Despite of my negative take, I'll still go see the next one when it comes out (there will be a next one).
**
Playlist of late:
Danzig - Danzig 1
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Mark Korven - The Witch OST
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Flipper - Generic Flipper
Various - Under Frustration, Vol. 2
Brass Hearse - Eponymous EP
Rob Zombie - Apple Essentials
Brass Hearse - In Death (I'll Love You More) single
**
Card of the day:
To me, this card always indicates a solid foundation, or re-gathering thereof. And that's what I've been doing of late - a lot of rest. I've felt out of sorts, stressed out, and my wrist in probably badly sprained. I may continue to rest today, even if I am neglecting my writing. We'll see. The reading - of comics, The Queen's Conjuror, and now some Cthulhu Mythos, is also an attempt at re-cementing my foundation, and that combined with the added rest is helping put me back together a bit after traveling and a grueling return to work last week.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
2019: July 17th 3 From Hell Trailer
Although I've been waiting for this, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Rob Zombie returning to the Firefly Clan characters. Why? Well, A) they pretty clearly died at the end of The Devil's Rejects, and B) it's weird when filmmakers put you in a position of rooting for such ultimately disgusting characters. Also, this looks like Zombie has added Natural Born Killers into his blender, so that may run the risk of feeling overly borrowed from. We'll see. Normally, Zombie can more or less mix in the stuff he 'samples' from his influences in a way that feels like homage instead of theft. Hopefully, that will be true here as well.
As for the 'how did they survive?' question, I noticed a quick flash at 0:20 in the trailer of a newspaper headline that reads, "Satanic Recovery," and I'm wondering (Read: Hoping) the recovery is pulled off via some weird call-back to Dr. Satan and all the strange, quasi-supernatural stuff that happened in the final segment of House of 1000 Corpses, all of which was completely ignored for The Devil's Rejects. That absence was disappointing at the time Rejects was released, however, over the years I have grown to understand and applaud the decision as a matter of tone - Dr. Satan and all related characters would never have fit into Rejects; the one deleted scene with the Doctor was definitely best left out. Now, however, this might be a great way to bring him back.
**
Frank Black Appreciation Week concludes today with another of my favorite songs from The Catholics-era Black. Released on the album Dog in the Sand, this was, I believe, the first time Black had recorded with Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago since the break-up of the band. The resulting material - especially this particular track - is a doozy. I remember hearing around the time of this album's release that the lyrics were about how, after Black's father passed away, when it came to the task of going through his home, dozens of guns were found, all loaded with only a single bullet.
Creeeeeepy, but awesome.
**
Playlist from 7/16:
Frank Black - The Cult of Ray
Preoccupations - Eponymous
Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Va Wissen - The Mystery of Heaven
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
White Lung - Eponymous
Uniform and The Body - Penance (Pre-release single)
Uniform and The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing*
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
*I totally just figured out that this album is named after a lyric in Ozzy's Crazy Train. It made me love both these bands even more than I already do.
**
Card of the day:
Feeling like this is a good sign that I cross a finish line today.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
2018: May 12th 8:07 AM
Here's a song I originally found back in the mid-00s and then lost track of. Recently, I spent a good amount of time looking for Salem's Dirt on youtube but A) although the video left a lasting impression in my head, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the track, and B) there are a lot of bands named Salem. Anyway, I get to Keller's the other day and he has a Grimes-inspired playlist on and I see Salem Redlights. This makes me think about my fruitless search and I go on a tear again, preempting our meeting just to try and find this song. And I finally find it, I think by googling some combination of the words, "Salem + Music Video + Garage". Creepy AF.
I don't know if Salem is still kicking. Back in 2006-2007, I spent a lot of time nosing around online for music. I was also reading Wire magazine rabidly, and between the two I found quite a bit of really left of center music. I'm not talking about System of a Down left of center - they're not - or even Mike Patton left of center. This was small stuff. It was also around the time I first heard the terms "Witchhouse" and "Hypnogogic Pop", which may have essentially been the same thing. Anyway, there's a lot of stuff that just kind of got swallowed with time, Salem being one of them. I stopped reading Wire after I left Borders (I'd have to drive to Amoeba to get it - need to look into reading it online), and started spending my time writing instead of snooping for music. The one site I found during the final years of that whole musical archeology thing that I stick to religiously is Heaven is an Incubator, because honestly, Tommy finds only great stuff and he finds a lot of it. Good to re-claim this now as something I can go to when I need a freaky vibe to catalyze a scene or idea.
I signed up for Tubi and finally gave Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem another chance and, holy cow, I really liked it. The last time I think my two major problems were we were still kind of coming off his lackluster Halloween stint, and I fell asleep during my viewing. This time I was wide awake in spite of starting the movie with some yawns, but it pretty much kept me glued. And I thought Sherri Moon Zombie did a really great, somewhat nuanced job in the starring role. So that kind of puts RZ's films back in the black with me, with only his Michael Myers-as-Jason Voorhees singular one of his I hate, and the first Halloween feeling pointless and mean.
Playlist from yesterday:
Darkness Brings the Cold - House of Sin 1
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelicts
Nachtmystium - Reign of the Malicious
Darkness Brings the Cold - IX
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Pt. 2
Burzum - Aske
Card of the day:
Watery aspect of fire - temper Will with Emotion.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Rob Zombie Talks 31
One more I'm referencing from Bloody Disgusting today. Interesting news on the new Zombie movie 31, including a description that sounds awesome! Remember Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men, Arcade's Murder World? Well...
Go here to read about more about 31, watch and listen to a whole lot more information on the project and, if it suits your fancy, back it!
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Rob Zombie's New Horror Movie?
via Bloody Disgusting. I have NO idea what this will be but despite my dislike of H2 (beautifully shot, and that's the only good thing I can say about it) and subsequent relative disappointment in the Lords of Salem - which looks amazing but I was unable to make it all the way through due to what I perceived at the time to be an amazingly sluggish pace* and next to no plot advancement from the inciting incident into almost the end of the second act, I am excited for this. Mr. Zombie's much touted, "I'm done with horror" scared me. Whether he balks or slams one out of the park, I like Zombie on the Horror hound side. I don't want to applaud what may be a diminutive situation for him - being stuck inside a genre he wants out of - but what can I say? House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects are, in my mind, modern classics of the genre (even if they do wear their influences on their sleeve. So what? It makes it so you can watch them and go, "Oh! Zombie loves House by the Cemetery too! Awesome!) and aspects of the Theatrical cut of Halloween turn what is essentially an over-explained and unneeded remake into a beautifully rendered piece of cinema.
...........
* I intend to give Lords of Salem another chance as a lot of folks whose opinions I respect loved it and in the film's defense, I tried watching it after I'd been up for almost 24 hours, so what I perceived as a 'sluggish pace' may have actually been me nodding off.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Bret Easton Ellis & Rob Zombie Designing Manson Murder Series
image courtesy of untitledbooks.com |
image courtesy of Halloweenmovie.wiki |
A good friend just rocked my world on Twitter when she through this article at me. Holy smokes!
Now, I'm a fan of Zombie's first two flicks for sure. Halloween I'd have to see again - it's no original and definitely overdid the 'cause and effect' of Michael Myers, which really was better left unexplained, but seeing it in the theatre I have to admit that both visually and sonically I was blown away with the film. The sequel however, despite being a beautifully shot film, really only works with the sound turned off, as every line of dialogue and plot point just frustrates the hell out of me.
Then came Lords of Salem, which I really wanted to like and just plain could not make it through. Again and even more so, visually the film was fantastic, but I could not get through it.
Ellis on the other hand has never let me down and the idea of Zombie visualizing his script fills me with absolute joy! Especially if the subject they are helming is based on Charles Manson. I'm not one of those Manson aficionados like Zombie is, but its an area of American history that very much interests me - the shadow cousin of the Peace and Love 60's that left its initials tattooed across the decade - and I think both auteurs will turn out an amazing project, especially as it is apparently NOT an adapted work but an original take.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Banjo & Sullivan - I'm at Home Getting Hammered While She's Out Getting Nailed
Re-watched Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects last Saturday night. I've always really liked the film, but this time it really stuck with me. I'm pretty much not a fan of any of his other films besides this one and House of a Thousand Corpses, although I think he is an incredible filmmaker. I know that sounds contrarian, suffice it to say the man has a great eye and a wandering muse...
Most of the music in the film is pretty great. The final sequence even qualifies as the only instance where I've ever been completely blown away by Free Bird. By all rights setting any scene to the entirety of that gratuitous ode to being a womanizing jerk should be awful, but RZ killed it.
The actors all put in fantastic performances, especially Bill Moseley, who if I remember reading correctly was absolutely sickened by the scene where he introduces the handgun to Priscilla Barnes' panties. The entire Banjo and Sullivan cast was fantastic and it was very cool that the soundtrack fleshed out their stories with this clippin' little ditty that, listening to now, I wish I could have heard Ween cover live back in the day.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Rob Zombie on the Lords of Salem
Rob Zombie Talks 'The Lords of Salem' and... by DM-Exclusives
thanks to the awesome Bloodydisgusting for posting this.