Showing posts with label Tennis System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tennis System. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

2019: July 9th New Tennis System!



Holy cow! New Tennis System out August 2nd. You can pre-order the LP from Graveface Records and Curiosities HERE!

**

Another short one today. Where the fuck is the time going?

Playlist from 7/08:

Alice Donut - The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Zombi - Shape Shift
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Benny Goodman - Hits

**

No card today.

Saturday, December 8, 2018

2018: December 8th



Always a pleasure to get a new video from Tennis System. L I E is the final track on this year's Pain EP, and it was one of my favorite EPs of the year. This band is awesome! Support them HERE.

Short post today, as I'm chasing down a new idea for a short story.

Long night of hanging with the old school gang. And it got Old School, believe me. The playlist was out of my control and largely nostalgic, with Mr. Brown handling most of the duties, and everyone else popping in a disc here or there for a song or two. Fantastic time, Fantastic friends, and Fantastic music. Here's what I can piece together from the fragments of memory floating on a rocky sea of Goose Island 312 and Italian Beef:

Playlist from 12/07:

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - It's a Holiday Soul Party
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Reverend Horton Heat - We Three Kings
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Anthrax - Sound of White Noise
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

Card of the day:


Definitely the appropriate feeling for being home among all my loved ones, so I'll leave it at that.

Saturday, November 24, 2018

2018: November 24th



New Tennis System! This isn't up on their bandcamp yet, so I'm thinking we have a new release on the way!


Spent Thanksgiving morning watching Sophie Huber's Harry Dean Stanton documentary, Partly Fiction. Really cool. There's a great segment with David Lynch, one with Kris Kristopherson, and even Debby Harry. And it's fantastic watching Stanton break into song, especially Everybody's Talkin', by Harry Nilsson




From 11/23
The Fixx - Shuttered Room
Harry Nilsson -
Harry Nilsson -
Opeth - Deliverence
Opeth - Blackwater Park

Card for the 11/23:


And for today:


No time to really dig into an interpretation for this now as I'm off for work. But at a glance, Dominion to Defeat doesn't necessarily constitute a bad thing, just a need to re-direct energies.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

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.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

2018: July 31st



Sunday night Tennis System killed it at the Echoplex! We missed the opener Topographies, walking in and only hearing their final song, which was great. Tennis System came up next and swift, which was nice. I'm not one to hold up a phone for video or photos at shows, but Such A Drag is important to K and I, so I knew I was going to catch that for sure (she stayed home due to work in the morning; I had already arranged a late start). When they went straight into one of my favorite songs from the new EP afterward, I figured I'd finish what I started.

The real surprise was the headliner, Airiel. This was a Part Time Punks show, as most if not every Sunday night is at the Echoplex, and Airiel's front man Jeremy Wrenn commended PTP founder Michael Stock on bringing them out to the West Coast after a ten year hiatus. These guys were humble, and they were fantastic. If you dig old albums by The Cure, The Smiths and especially the Cocteau Twins, check them out. Here's a great place to start:



Playlist from the last two days, more or less:

Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Badfinger -
Tennis System - Pain EP
The Veils - Total Depravity

Write Dark Things playlist
Airiel - Winks & Kisses: Melted EP
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Tennis System - Technicolor Blind

Card of the day:

Breakthrough! (let's hope)

Sunday, July 29, 2018

2018: July 29th



About a month ago I put Ministry's Dark Side of the Spoon in my car with the intention of finally getting to know it as an album. I've been a Ministry fan since just after Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs came out in 1992. The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste will probably always remain my favorite release, line-up, and era for the band, but I stuck with them fiercely through all the changes over the years. Where some folks I knew turned away from them after Psalm, I loved Filth Pig from day one, and although I fell off briefly with Spoon, when Animositisomina hit as the follow-up, I was right back in the fold and remained there until recently. I still dig what Uncle Al does musically, I've just become less interested in following it.

At some point in the last five or six years I found a used copy of Spoon at Amoeba and figured, what the hell? But still, that grand discovery never followed. Recently that changed, and Eureka Pile is, to my ears, one of the stand-out tracks. Above is a video I found while looking for the song on youtube; I'd never come across Chemical Traces' work before, but I'm intrigued. With its labored lope and lackadaisical drawl, this is a hard song to do a video to and keep it interesting, and CT pulls it off. Also, the work is deeply personal, and that makes it doubly effective. I'm interested to see more of their work. Looking at their artist's page on Youtube I see a lot of what I'm interested in here, so I'll probably be posting some more of Chemical Traces' work here in the future.

Into the last third of Norman Mailer's The Deer Park. If you're a fan of literary prose, specifically very Fitzgerald-esque literary prose, this novel should go on your list. It drifts a bit in the middle, but I'm enjoying this walk through 1950's McCarthyism Hollywood debauchery, set in a fictional oasis in the California desert.


Tennis System tonight at my beloved Echoplex. Haven't been there in a while, and I realized it's almost two-and-a-half years since I discovered this awesome Los Angeles band opening for Eagulls at the Teragram. Here's a Flock of Seagulls cover I had never heard them do before:




Playlist from yesterday:

The Veils - Total Depravity
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon

Card of the day:


From the Grimoire: "When this card comes, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan out on a day ruled by this card."

Sunday, July 22, 2018

2018: July 21st



I just realized Tennis System has a new E.P. out the other day, and not long after Keller messaged me to ask if I was down to see them at a Part Time Punks show at the Echoplex next Sunday.

My response? Fuck. Yes.

Per my previous blog, we watched Triangle on Friday night. Fantastic film. I was a little worried that the thumbnail image on Shudder - which was the widespread poster image for the film - had ruined the twist of the film for me (I was so concerned about this that I doctored the thumbnail I posted here the other day, so as not to ruin it for anyone else), but the good news is that particular twist is inevitable right from the start and not at all the point of the film. So definitely worth a watch.

Oh! And speaking of Shudder, one more reason to love these folks - they surprised me with a free 30 days! How great is that? So, let's check the boxes on why Shudder is awesome (and, btw, not an affiliate):

1) They Sponsor Beyond Fest every year.
2) Great selection that grows every week
3) Hosting the Joe Bob Briggs Last Drive-in and leaving it up in perpetuity
4) Their live-streaming Shudder.TV channels are awesome and remind me of how I discovered horror back in the day (John Carpenter on WGN channel 9's nightly movie).

Playlist from Friday, 7/20

Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death
Daughters - Satan in Wait (Pre-release single)
Beak> - L.A. Playback
Lake Trout - Another One Lost
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Emma Ruth Rundle - Fever Dreams (Pre-release single)
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Uniform - The Walk (Pre-release single)
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet

I spent about twelve hours yesterday editing, uploading and post the new episode of DwC. Possibly the fastest turn-around I've done on my own, but it cost me my Saturday. I mean, I didn't do anything else, as reflected by my playlist, which was what we listened to while we made and ate dinner.

Playlist from Saturday, 7/22:

Footloose - OST
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

I watched Slither last night for the first time since my initial viewing, many years ago. Great little horror flick. Between that and Super - which I loved - I'm pretty sure James Gunn will have no trouble re-acclimating to making movies again. I'm sorry for the loss of such a huge contract and opportunity at the hands of adolescent-like immaturity, and I'm even more sorry for those MCU fans that will be subjected to GoG without Gunn at the helm, but I'm excited Mr. Gunn will once again be making movies that I will actually see.



Card of the day:


From the Grimoire: "All troubles and disruptions have been necessary to grow. That growth is a Victory, as not everyone makes it out of the strife and chaos of the fives."

The story I've been working on, "Please Believe Me" is so far outside of what I've done before, as far as character and overall tone, that my writing sessions have been strife and chaos. It can't be underreported, the feeling of sitting down during my daily ritual space for writing and coming away two or three hours later with nothing useable, or merely sketches of the tone and ideas that I want. Please Believe Me is meant to be a contemplation of Dread, which is far and away a different tone and emotion than horror, and finding the parameters of that tone inside of how I would normally write, how I would move a character or set a scene to progress, it's just not easy.

But it's rewarding, I'll tell you that.

Is today the day I finish it? Maybe.