Seeing Zeal and Ardor tonight with some friends at the Echoplex!!!
NCBD:
Still going to be another week before I return to Tennessee and grab my books, but here's this week's pull:
New book written by Stephen Grahman Jones!
I've actually really missed this book in its brief furlough. Can't wait to see what madness Cotes gets Bruce and his big, green spaceship into this time.
Another new book I know very little about.
Kinda hell waiting to buy my books, especially when I intend on stopping by The Comic Bug at some point, and Mike from Atomic Basement is doing a Pop-up shop in Long Beach.
Playlist:
David Bowie - Earthling
Anthrax - Worship Music
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Drum - Gold Class
The Ocean - Heliocentric
NIN - The Slip
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Last night, I scored a ticket to the Southern Lord 20th Anniversary show coming up on November 18th. Sunn O))) is the only announced act at this point in time - I've never seen them live and the show is at the Echoplex, so there was no debating my attendance. That said, I'm holding out hope a Burning Witch reunion might be in the works, so I'm throwing this live performance out to the Universe as a suggestion/nudge. Let's see if it works.
New Emma Ruth Rundle dropped today; I woke up to find it loaded in my Apple Music. Can't wait to chow down on this one later today, preferably at night, stoned. I have make it through work and Drinking with Comics first though.
I have it on good authority the new Predator movie is not good. My friend Anthony sent me a text about it last night directly after leaving the theatre. I trust Anthony's opinion 100%, so despite my initial fervor, I will now be skipping it.
Playlist from 9/13:
Pallbearer - Fear & Fury EP
Type O Negative - October Rust
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Emma Ruth Rundle - Fever Dreams Pre-Release Single
Card of the day:
I guess I will need to be ready to act on unexpected opportunities.
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.
And then there was Dillinger Escape Plan last night at the Echoplex. I'll be honest - I was a bit afraid. I've seen these guys five times now since I, like so many others, discovered them in '99 when they came out and tore shit up as the opener for Mr. Bungle on the very first leg of their California tour. I've written about this before - DEP scared me then and they've scared me numerous times since (I think I outline it fairly exhaustively here), and it'd been literally ten years since I saw the band in a venue as small as the Echoplex. That was at Chicago's now deceased Fireside Bowl and actually, yeah, that was even smaller than the Echoplex.
But I digress.
My friend Michael went with me and we stood fairly close to the front. And you know, it was still bedlam, especially with the good-natured audience full of surfers and stage-divers, but it was the least-threatening Dillinger show I've seen and had an all-around great vibe full of camaraderie.
Happiness is a Smile is a new song they played last night, released a few months ago on a limited edition vinyl 7" that I didn't even realize was being sold at their merch table last night.
Heading out to LA's Echoplex to see Author & Punisher, Corrections House and Wrekmeister Harmonies in a little while. I had never heard of Wrekmeister before, and it was by sheer luck I happened to remember that there was a third band on tonight's bill and, you know, I should probably do a little research before heading out so I knew what I was in store for.
Man am I glad I did that research. I would hate to think that I could have missed this, Chicago's J.R. Robinson's installation-like project you can read all about on Invisible Oranges here (great article by Brad Sanders, btw).
You can buy this wonderful piece of music from Thrilljockey here and there's a great live performance on member/contributer Chris Brokaw's bandcamp.
