Daily Jam - The Light Before We Land

One more week of remote school for my 7-year old, and then we get a break for Christmas.  Here's 
"The Light Before We Land" by Scottish band The Delgados, our Daily Jam.

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou Cover The Cranberries

Not content with releasing one of the best albums of 2020, Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou are back with an EP for 2021 (it also came as a bonus record if you got the special edition version of "May Our Chambers Be Full").  On the upcoming "The Helm of Sorrow," the artists close things out with a cover of The Cranberries' "Hollywood."  Check it out below and pre-order it here via Sacred Bones.

Daily Jam - Femme Fatale

It seems i always circle back around the Velvet Underground eventually.  Here they are with Nico and "Femme Fatale," our Daily Jam.

Pothamus

Always.  Something always sweeps in at the end of the year to make me go back and reconsider my favorite album list.  And this year, it's the ominous mix of sludge metal, post rock, and tribal beats from Belgium's Pothamus.  Just listen to "Orath" below.  It sounds like the abyss.  New album "Raya" is out now.  Get it here from the band. 

Daily Jam - See Woman See Human

Here's some weird, '80s electronic and industrial tinged music from a band called Rosemary's Baby.  Check out the creeping, oozing "See Woman See Human" below, our Daily Jam.

And now...My Favorite First Time Viewings of 2020

What have you done during the pandemic?  Apparently, i've watched movies.  Like, a shitload of movies.  Scanning over my Letterboxed account, i'm fast approaching 500 movies watched since our offices closes back in the middle of March.  Congratulations to me i suppose.  Anyway, with this influx of home viewings, there are a lot more first time watches than in years past.  So rather than limit myself to 10 films like a normally do, i'm going to post 20 instead, divided into 2 parts: 10 movies that might be considered more "high-end cinema," and 10 movies that embody the stupid bullshit freaks like me are into.  I loved all of these movies, and while i am recommending them, i understand that mileage may vary, and that many of you out there would hate some of these and would be baffled as to why i would want you to watch it (Singapore Sling i'm looking in your direction).  Anyway, check 'em out if you dare

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1. The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Over the top Vincent Price madness with undying love, booby traps, and kills galore that's oh so wonderful.

2. Danger: Diabolik

Over the top Technicolor riff on '60s spy movies with a Morricone soundtrack from the same people who brought us Barbarella.

3. The Devils

A Ken Russell masterpiece that has never received a physical release...probably because of the nun orgy.  It's the nun orgy right?  Put this out on Blu Ray you cowards!

4. Kiss Me Deadly

Superb film noir that totally influenced Tarantino.  You'll know exactly what i'm talking about when you watch it.

5. Kwaidan

Positively gorgeous from start to finish, haunting and entrancing.  I don't know why it took me so long to sit and watch this wonderful movie.

6. Shogun Assassin

Pop art fusion of East and West bathed in bright red blood.  The filmmakers repurposed and edited a couple of Lone Wolf and Cub movies together and then added a cool synth score and English dubbing that actually works.  Delightful.

7. Singapore Sling

Wow.  I went in knowing nothing, and holy moly.  The Greek film has a film noir vibe with a whole lot of weird sex stuff.  I'll just leave it at that.  Do what you will.

8. Sorcerer

Probably William Friedkin's best film, and he's made a lot of great ones.  A tense movie full of existential dread and ruminations on the almost nihilistic nature of fate.

9. Until the End of the World

At just hair under 5 hours, the director's cut is kind of an endeavor, but ultimately a very rewarding one.  A romantic, sci-fi road movie spanning 4 continents and beyond, it left me mesmerized with its meditations on the human condition.  Wim Wenders is a treasure.

10. Wild at Heart

I really don't know why i only just now got around to watching this one.  David Lynch never disappoints.

And now for the B-role...

1. American Rickshaw

One of those beamed in from another dimension kind of movies, often incoherent, goofy, and bafflingly bugshit crazy, but something you immediately want to make your friends watch afterwards.

2. Anguish

There's a kind of meta movie within a movie thing going on here that's actually pretty cool, and i am here for creepy Zelda Rubenstein.

3. Body Snatchers

I didn't realize until this year that this '90s take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers was directed by Abel Ferrara, so i jumped on it quick.  It's kind of mean spirited but totally rules.

4. Freaked

Bobcat Goldthwaite voices a man with a sock puppet for a head.  That is all.

5. Gwendoline OR The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak

Cocaine.  I don't know how to explain this movie other than cocaine.  An over the top erotic adventure movie with a great score, and lots of scantily clad warrior women.

6. Hack-O-Lantern

Just completely on its own wavelength.  Is it any good?  Probably not.  It is entertaining?  You're damn right it is.

7. 9 Deaths of the Ninja

Just maybe the best opening title sequence of all time.

8. Prison

Very cool haunted house in a prison '80s movie by Renny Harlin with a then unknown Viggo Mortensen.

9. R.O.T.O.R.

Positively, gloriously stupid.  I am ROTOR.  You are guilty.

10. Superstition

There are parts of this movie that don't make any sense and some bizarro narrative choices that are...something.  But the practical gore effects are top notch, there are some genuinely creepy moments, and the overall bugfuck nature of the whole thing makes it worth the watch.  Total Drive-In fuel.

Well, there you go.  These are your assignment for the Christmas break.  I'm done with the Year-End lists for a couple of weeks, but will be back with one more (Favorite Movies of 2020) before 2021.

Friday Horror Trailer - The Lodge

Daily Jam - Dystopia

Here's some synthy alt-pop from Australia's Midnight Juggernauts.  Listen to "Dystopia," our Daily Jam.

 

And now...My Favorite Album Art of 2020

I was going to list 5-10 pieces of album cover art here.  I really intended to do that.  But really there was only ever going to be one album cover from 2020 to make the list.  Maybe i should have just listed it 5-10 times.  It stands head and shoulders above the rest.  Had i stumbled across it in a store, i would have bought it up without listening to a single note.  Bask in all its splendor...

1. Donny Benét - Mr. Experience

I trust we're all in agreement here.  Be back tomorrow for a bunch of non-2020 movies that watched for the first time this year and adored.

Daily Jam - Kimmi in a Rice Field

Of all the dreamy pop i've listened to over the last decade (and that's no small amount of dreamy pop), i don't think there's a track that quite nails the aesthetic just right like "Kimmi in a Rice Field," the 2011 tune from Mr. Twin Sister (nee Twin Sister).  I'd never seen the video before though.  It's kinda creepy.  Check it out, our Daily Jam.