Isolation: Day 127

Back in the 90s, Cypress Hill completed the holy trinity my friend Jake and I were musically obsessed with, the other two groups being Black Sabbath and Type O Negative. I hung with the Hill all the way until Skull and Bones, but even my fan inertia couldn't get me to listen to that one for very long before I bounced, and I've never looked back. The few tracks I've caught wind of on subsequent records felt watered down and lame (What's Your Number? Really?), and without Muggs at the helm for ten years, I was definitely not interested.

Until now.

IV ended up in my rotation recently, and I found once I'd listened to it the first time, I couldn't get it out of my head. My favorite will always be III: Temples of Boom, specifically because at the time of its release, I'd never experienced an album that affected me the way that one did. There's a sick undercurrent to its amalgamation of Muggs' music and production and the cartoonish violence of the lyrics that just left me feeling unsettled for the first few listens. Full disclosure, this was the year Jake gave me a glass bong for my birthday, so I was really high most of the time I was listening to it.

At any rate, IV is the first of their albums to show a crack in their sound; I really dig about 80% of the record, but the stupid sex rhyme and an over abundance of down-tempo tracks on the B side means it starts strong and peters out. I'd forgotten how strong that first half was, and after falling back into it, I noticed the group released an album in 2018. I decided to give it a try.

Elephants on Acid is fantastic! There's probably too many songs again, but over all I am absolutely loving this album. Muggs in on 100% of this one, and it feels a bit like a sequel to Temples of Boom, with similar imagery and aural textures; lots of sitar and otherworldly atmosphere. The opening track takes this a bit overboard, and initially I almost turned the record off because of this. However, I hung in for a full listen, and immediately went back for a second. It feels like old Hill, but not in the way that, say, Rick Rubin returns old metal bands to their former glory by basically creating a caricature of their original sound. This feels fresh at the same time it feels old school. and I'm assuming that's because the group has stripped away ideas of doing anything other than being true to what they are.

I was especially pleased with the track above because it brings back Sick Jacken from The Psycho Realm, whose first album is an underrated 90s hip hop classic.

Now, if only I still had that bong Jake gave me...

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Last night's viewing:



Also, I did House By the Cemetery with commentary the day it arrived, and saved the actual movie for last night. It didn't disappoint. Never does. "Mommy..."

One of the extras on the main disc is the original TV spots for the flick that aired back in '81. Tell me this doesn't sound like Brother Theodore's character from The 'Burbs did the voice over:





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Playlist:

Cypress Hill - IV
Cypress Hill - Elephants on Acid
The Psycho Realm - Eponymous
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Brainiac - Smack Bunny Baby
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

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Card:

An abundance of ideas, projects, and interests, it takes a greater strength than usual to narrow things down and get anything done at all.

Isolation: Day 126 - Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor Gets a Trailer!

I feel as though I've been waiting for this trailer forever. Now that it's here, I really just want the movie. The real shame is, if not for COVID, Brandon Cronenberg's sophomore flick would most likely be premiering at Beyondfest. As it stands, I guess I'll be doing a big VOD event for it when the release is finally announced (please announce soon!)

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Late last week I caught wind of William Lustig's company Blue Underground having released a 3-Disc, 4K Blu Ray edition of Lucio Fulci's House By the Cemetery. I love this flick - while it took me a while to come around on The Beyond and City of the Living Dead (I love both now), House has always been a film that fascinates me. So as soon as I saw this, I ordered it. Pricey, but worth it.

The restoration is, as with all Blue Underground's restorations - gorgeous. If you go to this edition's page on Blu-Ray.com (HERE), you can read about the transfer and see some screen shot comparisons. The second disc is filled with extras, including a lot of interviews with the actors and crew, and the third disc is a CD edition of Walter Rizzati's brilliant score for the film.

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Playlist:

Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST
Primus - Antipop
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Moderat - II
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Elephant Tree - Habits
Cypress Hill - IV
Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
David Lynch and Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

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Card:

Power struggles, internal or external. I'm taking this as a warning that discipline will be needed to fully reintegrate my writing time back into The Secret Life of Murder, now that my belabored short story Fixation on a Coworker is finally finished.

Coworker proved extremely difficult to write; I worked on the thing off and on for a year and three months. I finally brought it in at ~7700 words, then decided I wanted to try submitting it to a publication I recently discovered called Infernal Ink. Some of my stories skew into what I'd call Erotic Horror, and this story especially plays in that arena. There's an overarching theme - or character actually - that runs through these stories, so even though they are stand alone, they're part of a bigger story slowly forming in my head. Anyway, Infernal Ink's submissions cut off at 5K, so I knuckled down and decided to practice one of my favorite parts of writing - editing. I cut the story down to 6K, then down another thousand to 5K.

It felt good! The story as it was is probably perfect at 6K. Chopping it down more wasn't easy, but I eliminated a supporting character arc that originally dovetailed with the protagonist's, eased the throttle back on some of my more descriptive passages, and landed it clean. It was at that point I realized Infernal Ink's submissions are closed, as their upcoming October issue will be the magazine's final issue as they switch gears to focus on book publishing.

Waste of time? Not. At. All. The editing process really bolstered my confidence in a story that otherwise had me running in prosaic circles, and that's never a bad thing. Plus, I found an awesome publisher/magazine in the process (all the issues are on Kindle for under $3).

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.