There’s only so much I can put in this space – most of the year was eaten up by school and a full-time job, and trying to keep my mind intact. That said, I did manage to read a few books for pleasure, see a few shows, and listen to a few albums.
BOOKS
I dove into Weird waters, encouraged by devouring every episode of The Outer Dark podcast after an author I follow on Facebook shared the state of the weird episode from late 2015. Look for a mega 2016 reviews thread soon.
2016
Undertow Books
I subscribed, but didn’t get to most of them.
Eric Schaller – Meet Me in the Middle of the Air. Read it on the subway to and from work. I’ve had a review in progress for too long. I’ve now forgotten how many of these stories go. Wonderful book. Hopefully my notes can be turned into something coherent.
01 Publishing
Nicole Cushing – Sadist’s Bible. I knew if was fucked up and heavy going in. I didn’t know just how much. What surprised me was how well the story built up my tolerance for the last 1/3 or so. Review soon.
Dim Shores: Subscribed about 4 volumes in. Got sidetracked mid-way through the year. I loved all the ones I read. Pretty much everything except for the Knife Dance is sold out (and sells out quickly. Get on it!)
Craig Gidney – The Nectar of Nightmares; Kristi DeMeester – Split Tongues;Cody Goodfellow – The Free School; SP Miskowski – Stag in Flight
Will post reviews of the above soon.
It seems as though everybody in Weird loves Michael Cisco, but I just couldn’t read the Knife Dance. Got about a 1/3 of the way in and had to re-start because too much time passed. It never grabbed me despite trying 4 or 5 times. Beautiful production on the book, though.
Kingshot Press
Scott Nicolay – Noctuidae. My introduction to his work, and exactly what I hoped for. His debut collection is on my shelf still.
Other
Thinking Horror #1 A fascinating look at the philosophy of horror. Lots to think about.
New to me: Probably most of the Dunham’s Manor books were old. I haven’t yet gotten to the new ones I bought. There are 8 that I’ve read, and for some of them I will be posting quick reviews soon.
Don Hutchison (Ed.) – Northern Frights #1 It’s been on my shelf for a while
Adam Nevill – The Ritual
A recommendation of Ian Roger’s for the description of the woods in the first half.I liked the first half a lot. Second half, not so much.
Eva Darrows- The Awesome
A fun YA horror – I wanted to read something with a recent teenage girl character, and I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Was on the recommended shelf at my local spec bookshop. Some valid criticism on Goodreads re consent, and a few logic holes.
I had a bunch of ChiZine books on the go, but never finished them (not because they weren’t good, but because I got distracted). They are mostly digital because their subscriptions were such a good deal. Shame they don’t do it anymore. Ooh, new website.
Short Story advent calendar. “Not my cuppa,” as they say. I read the first 4, and maybe I’ll check out the others this year. Maybe.
COMICS
some new, some old. A lot of Image.
Ed Brubaker/Steve Epting/ Elizabeth Breitweiser-Velvet
A kickass lady spy. Too short
Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez-Locke & Key
Came to this late, read it all quickly.
–Revival
Most interesting zombie comic I’m aware of.
Becky Cloonan/ Andy Belanger-Southern Cross
Space weirdness that promises much. So far it’s more mystery than anything else. A fan of both their solo mini comics – worth getting.
MUSIC
Albums
Tanya Tagaq – Retribution
The new album is incredible. Crazy range from ambient to super heavy at times. Minimal and expansive. Always beautiful, even when the sounds are ugly. Lots of great videos on Youtube to get a sample, too, if you don’t have Spotify.
Primal Scream – Chaosmosis
crowdfunding experience wasn’t amazing, but I love the album
Flawed is Beautiful bonus CDs – 1)These Animal Men (TAM) and 2) S*M*A*S*H
TAM – I prefer this one because I’ve heard less of it. 6 unreleased demos from a 3rd album that never happened and some of their best work, a few outtakes, some BBC and live recordings and an early single. The big selling point on the S*M*A*S*H disk are a rare and deleted single and demos I already own (though the demos are in better quality here). Earlier recordings – a split cassette (Wheelers, Dealers, and Christine Keelers) featuring both bands wasn’t included, and neither were some S*M*A*S*H demos that I have found online, when they were called Smash at the Blues.
Kikagaku Moyo -2 LPs from the show, both new to me. Japanese psych rock/ folk
Hedgehog – Chinese punk I discovered because I was reading a friend’s pilot script that inspired Google searching. Great band, huge discography (because they’ve been around a decade).
Concerts
Tanya Tagaq – mind-blowing performance. Go! Probably the highlight of my year.
Kikagaku Moyo – one of the few shows I made it to. Better live than I expected.
fmalexander 