WEEKLY ROUNDUP - February 8-14, 2015

Still getting my music review legs back under me, but I'm not sure how productive I can be. Reviewing albums is the most time-consuming writing I've ever done, not that I mind it. I mean, the hours that go by have a good soundtrack. I just don't know how many I can realistically expect to do in a week. We'll see. This week though, I reviewed a couple of great ones.

Evil Spirit
Misty Grey
Doom Chart 02/14/15

COMICS SUCK!
Posts about comics new and old.

Comics Suck! rolled along through the groovy 60's and 70's this past week, both from Marvel Comics, back when the  publisher was truly Mighty. Next week we'll be tripping through the gnarly 80's and 90's.

Remember we're not just talking about comics in these posts, we're talking about music and movies too and hopefully, slowly and subtly are helping to put these funny books into a wider cultural context.

Tales of Suspense #62 (Feb 65)
Strange Tales #178 (Feb 65)

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Strange but true stories.

It's been a good run of Everyday Strange stories so far this month, we kicked things off with a special two-part Elisa Lam article (which continues to attract readers!), then to Dyatlov Pass, both of which were serious in tone. Then things veered off into some relatively silly places with the Cacti's Revenge story, although a man really did die at the hands branches of a cactus, so how "fun" can you really get?

This week saw more wild mood swings as we moved from the classic Devil's Footprints story to alligators in sewers. The thing I love about doing these articles is the learning aspect. I pick a subject I don't know much about because I think it sounds cool or weird or interesting and then I brush past the surface to discover how legends start. Half-heard and unconfirmed quotes, unsourced articles and opinions or the good old fashioned debunking job, there is very little you can count on remaining true from the beginning of the research phase to the finished article.

We topped off the week with the story of Tiffany Sutton, which ended up being far more popular than I'd imagined. Check it out at the link below:

The Devil's Footprints
Alligators in Sewers
Tiffany Sutton, real-life Vampire story

HORRIBLE NIGHTS
Horror films and music. Renamed from Horrible Mondays in loving tribute of Moss's album of the same name.

Started to get into the swing of these Horrible Nights a bit more this week. It's weird how things go in the blogging business. You think one post will be popular and it falls flat, and you think no one will notice another post and it blows up.

I Tweeted my 'Lost Themes' review directly to John Carpenter, needless to say we didn't tweet back, haha!

music - John Carpenter's 'Lost Themes'
movie - Demons (1985)

UPCOMING

This week is going to flow much like last week. I don't have any music reviews planned, but I've got 23 potential albums to review, although some of those will end up as Horrible Nights. Speaking of which I've got a music review coming up this Monday for an album I've been listening too pretty much non-stop since I discovered it this past Christmas. Also got a movie review coming this Friday for a film that shows you how to blow minds on an $8000 budget.

Aside from the two Comics Suck! posts coming up there are a number of Everyday Strange posts in the works. I was disappointed I didn't have time to post the story about that time they found 1200 bones beneath Ben Franklin's old house, I guess I'll have to get to it next year. This week I hope I can get to both demonic possession cases that are in the queue, each one inspired a movie, although the two films are not equals. Until then ...

Thanks for reading!

COMING SOON:            

WEEKLY ROUNDUP - Best of the Blog January 29 - February 7, 2015

This week's roundup consists of material from more than a week, I know. Took a bit of a break after the last weekly update before falling back into full swing for February.

Although no new album features went up this week I sneaked in a trio of music posts, including the podcast, Horrible Nights post about Jacula and the return of everybody's favorite Paranoid institution: The Doom Charts. These will be posted every Saturday.

My writings also appeared on two other websites this week. I did my first honest-to-goodness album review in almost a year over at the Sludgelord blog. I also wrote a flash fiction story back in mid-January which got published at Creepypasta, which is kind of a dream come true. Got a decent reception too!

Doom Chart for 02/07/15
Album review at Sludgelord
Creepypasta story

COMICS SUCK!
Posts about comics new and old.

Last month You May Be Dead and Dreaming hosted a relatively massive single post about 7 different comics and it was called Comics Suck! You can find it at this location. The plan was to post one of those suckers on the 15 of every month, but there's been a change of plan.

We'll be moving away from the monthly format for the Comics Suck! posts. From now on a single comic will be featured every fourth day from the 4-28 of every month. This month we're taking a look at comics cover dated February from 1955, '65, '75, '85, '95, 2005 and we'll finish out the month with a current issue. And don't be surprised to find another few nostalgic goodies, like films and music thrown in with these comics posts. I'm really excited about this feature and I think you will be too once the concept lands. The first single issue edition went up earlier in the week,

Fighting American #6 (Feb 55)

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Strange but true stories.

It was quantity over ... quantity(?) this week for Everyday Strange. Fewer, but longer posts. The two-part Elisa Lam article had a better reception that I expected. I worked on that one for weeks ahead of time. It was shared a few times on Google + and once on twitter by a professor(!) and I also happen to know that it traumatized at least one reader. Success!

Elisa Lam I
Elisa Lam II
The Dyatlov Pass Incident (NSFW!)
Cacti's Revenge

HORRIBLE NIGHTS
Horror films and music. Renamed from Horrible Mondays in loving tribute of Moss's album of the same name.

This has been the most inconsistent feature on the blog and that record needs to improve. Horrible Mondays will move forward with a horror music review every Monday and Horrible Nights will feature a movie review every Friday or Saturday night. I'm still interested in discovering the true origins of Jacula's first record, which you can read about on the post below. If you have any info or even conspiracy theories, feel free to leave a message.

Jacula
Wake Wood

PODCAST
Music podcast.

The podcast is in a flux period as arrangements are made and changes are due. Might not be another one for awhile, when it returns it will be worth the time and effort or it won't be back at all.

ep007 - Future Relics

UPCOMING
Expect two more Comics Suck! posts, Feb '65 and '75 editions coming at you on the 8th (later today) and the 12th respectively. It's hard to including everything for Everyday Strange but got a couple cool posts coming up including the infamous Devil's Footprints and a valentine's day Vampire story. Music reviews are returning, it's taken a little time to fall back into the discipline of it, but expect a couple more on the way coming up.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. - Got a couple Horrible Nights ahead including real bro talk about John Carpenter's new album and a look at this Italian feature length film ...

COMING SOON:            

WEEKLY ROUNDUP - Best of the Blog January 22-28, 2015

Posted fewer albums this week, will probably be the norm going forward. Still feeling my way around what I want to do here. Here is a small handful of the best albums from this week:

ALUCARDA
LUNG FLOWER
MY EXPANSIVE AWARENESS
THE WHOREHOUSE MASSACRE
YOU'RE SMILING NOW BUT WE'LL ALL TURN INTO DEMONS

Aside from the albums there were a number of fun posts including

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Every couple days I profile a strange, bizarre, unusual, mysterious or paranormal case or event from years past and post it on the day of its anniversary. If nothing else, it's something cool or spooky to read while listening to the music posted on this site. A mixed bag of stories this week ranging from the ridiculous to the truly tragic.

Nigerian Police Arrest Goat
Teresa Lynn Butler
Abducted By Machines
Jacqueline Fitzsimons

HORRIBLE MONDAYS

Mondays are dedicated to Horror on this blog. Didn't get a movie post in this week, but I'll make up for it. Moving forward I might like to post movies / film reviews on Friday or Saturday, but keep Horrible Mondays dedicated to other horror related items.

Terror en Camino Negro

Crypt Vapor

PODCAST
Only one podcast up this week and that should be the norm until the frequency rate drops below one a week. Been thinking seriously this week about what to do with the podcast. There are ideas, now I just need to get over my "stagefright" and do it.

ep006 - Night Fuel

UPCOMING
It's been a weird week. I've noticed some things outside the blog, but related to the music I feature here that equally motivate me and make me want to just walk away from the music side of things all together. That said, I will be helping to resurrect something which you'll hear about in the weeks and months ahead.

Got a couple large posts planned over the next couple days, we'll see how it all works out.

Thanks for reading!

WEEKLY ROUNDUP - Best of the Blog January 15-21, 2015

I'm pretty juiced up about all the albums that get posted here, but here are the ones that you absolutely should not pass up:

BURNING SAVIOURS

GALLEON

GRISTNAM

HOWLING GIANT

MAZE OF ROOTS

OOZE [ИЛ]

OYABUN

PESTA

SOYUZ BEAR

SPECTRAL HAZE

Aside from the albums there were a number of fun posts including

COMICS SUCK!
This is by far my favorite feature on the blog, probably because I only allow myself to do it once a month (for now). It's just me bullshitting and geeking out about 7 of my favorite comics from 7 different eras from 1955 to today. Check it out, if you like comics, this might put a smile on your face and you just. Might. Dig it!

Comics Suck - January 2015

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Every couple days I profile a strange, bizarre, unusual, mysterious or paranormal case or event from years past and post it on the day of its anniversary. If nothing else, it's something cool or spooky to read while listening to the music posted on this site. This past week, I managed to get a few more up than I'd previously been able to. I'm still tinkering with the format and I'm hoping to be able to do more, moving forward.

Rain of Snakes
Possessed by a Snake
And my favorite post of all-time ...
Unsolved Mysteries

HORRIBLE MONDAYS
Mondays are dedicated to Horror on this blog. This week I posted three features all of which can only tangentially be considered horror, but it made for a good (and unspoken) theme.

Anima Morte

A Year in the Country

Lucifer Rising

PODCAST
Got two podcasts up this week, one stoner, one doom. ep005 features some unreleased new tracks from Doomraiser, Pombagira and Bretus, check it out. Eventually I'll put more of myself into these things, for now it's just great music and none of my bullshit so enjoy it while you can!

ep004 - Faster, Pussycat

ep005 - Black Machines

UPCOMING
Content wise, this has been the strongest week around here so far. I'm still discovering a way to say everything I'm trying to say so the look and feel of some things might change as time goes on. I hate the way I write about music and I keep thinking about phasing it out altogether. I'll still post great albums, but you might have to skim over my bullshitting about them for very much longer.

Regarding Horrible Mondays. I'm starting to think Horrible Saturdays or even Horrible Fridays might be better. For many, Friday and Saturday nights are movie nights. It just makes more sense to do it on one of those two nights. A part of me wants to do one horror feature every day and just rip off Moss and call it Horrible Nights. I might do that too. But for now I'm going to continue to build up a backlog of posts, then see how it goes. Anyway if you don't see a Horrible Monday post, next week, expect it on the weekend.

Regarding Comics Suck! I'm getting better at this. I've already finished the February edition of Comics Suck! and that'll get posted on the day after Valentine's Day. I'll be doing less summarizing of single issues and more discussing whole series, creative runs or behind the scenes stuff. If the posts begin to sprawl a little (February hasn't), well I only post them once a month, so I hope you'll allow for the indulgence. These are a lot of fun!

And finally, I know that many of the pageviews I'm getting are here for one thing and one thing only: the music. That's totally cool, I dig music too, obviously.

But to the small handful of people who read the other weird posts on this blog ... you rock. You are awesome and I'd buy you a beer if I could. I don't need a million followers if a small handful of people are actually reading the posts because they're interested. Anyone of you is worth a billion uninterested followers. If you've gotten a kick from something I've posted here, even a slight half-chuckle, then it's all been worth it.

So thanks once again for reading!

WEEKLY ROUNDUP - Best of the Blog January 8-14, 2015

I'm pretty juiced up about all the albums that get posted here, but here are the ones that you absolutely should not pass up:

CROWNED IN EARTH
CRYPTRIP
IN THE COMPANY OF SERPENTS
KABBALAH
LAVAGOAT
PSYCHIC WOUNDS
STRANGE BROUE
THORR-AXE
TRAGIC MAGICK
WIDOW & CHILDREN

Aside from the albums there were a number of fun posts around here including

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Every couple days I profile a strange, bizarre, unusual, mysterious or paranormal case or event from years past and post it on the day of its anniversary. If nothing else, it's something cool or spooky to read while listening to the music posted on this site. I'd like to do one every day but these take time and care.

This week I threw two up here:
Rain of Rice in Burma
The Butler Street Poltergeist

HORRIBLE MONDAYS
Mondays are dedicated to Horror. This week I posted a feature on the weirdest album out there (the mad genius behind it loved that description) and 1940 film The Devil Bat with a new score by The Velvet Robe.

The Implicit Order
The Devil Bat

PODCAST
As things move forward I plan to post two podcasts a week, at least for the first little while, because there's truly too much great music out there that an hour can't even cover the best of the best. I only posted one this week, it was focused on Doom and heavier stuff and featured an all-new track by Desert Storm that knocks my socks off!

Podcast 003

UPCOMING
I've got a long way to go toward making You May Be Dead & Dreaming the place I want it to be. I've got a dizzying list of stuff for Horrible Mondays that I wonder if I'll ever whittle down to size. The plan for now is to have one post focused on horror music, another on a horror movie and another wildcard post about whatever strikes my fancy.

As I said earlier, the Everyday Strange stuff takes a lot of work so I'm working on making them shorter and more compact. If it works, it should be better all around.

As for the podcasts, still working on deciding on a regular schedule, Right now Stoner Thursdays and Doom Sunday / Mondays feels right.

Also, I've got my first comics post coming up tomorrow. A part of me wants to do more than one comics post a month so we'll see if I come up with any brilliant ideas.

Thanks for reading!

WEEKLY ROUNDUP - Best of the Blog January 1-7, 2015

I'm pretty juiced up about all the albums that get posted here, but here are the ones that you absolutely should not pass up:

ABBOT
DRIFTER
MOLIOR SUPERUM
OULU SPACE JAM COLLECTIVE
PHANTOMASS
STONE CADAVER
STRANGE BROUE
TEACHER
WIDOW & CHILDREN
ZOLTAN

Aside from the albums there were a number of fun posts around here including

EVERYDAY STRANGE
Every couple days I profile a strange, bizarre, unusual, mysterious or paranormal case from history and post it on the day of its anniversary. If nothing else, it's something cool or spooky to read while listening to the music posted on this site. I'd like to do one every day but these take a long time to do.

This week I threw two up here:
Hornsey Coal Poltergeist
The Stanford Kentucky Abductions

HORRIBLE MONDAYS
I'm trying to make Mondays dedicated to horror around here. Aside from the Zoltan albums (see link above) I also managed to post some thoughts on the Blind Dead film series and why they may be ripe for a re-make

The Blind Dead Series

PODCAST
Last but not least I posted not one, but two playlists to mixcloud. The first one's a bit weird, it's an atmospheric kind of thing I put together for myself with doom metal and off youtube clips over instrumentals and I threw it up on mixcloud to see how the process works. The second one is a bit more like what you may come to expect, no clips, no bullshit, just an hour's worth of stoner jams.

Podcast 001
Podcast 002

UPCOMING
I got a number of things in the works right now. Expect the Everyday Strange series to continue at about one post every 4 or 5 days. I got one in the bag and I'm working on a huge, sprawling case that I don't think one blog post can actually cover, so we'll see how that goes.

Be ready to be horrified this Monday with another couple of film and music posts dedicated to the greatest genre of them all.

There is one other feature that won't be seen until the 15th, and hopefully every 15th of the month after that. It's about comics new and old. It should be a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading!