1.
ROOT OF EVIL (Podcast)
Regular readers will know that The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy is a top 5 book for me. It’s not so much a masterclass in plotting, character or style — although I admire all those aspects of it — but more so it gets over via an unimpeachable vibe. Nothing hits quite like it, which partly explains why all the adaptations (this and this) aren’t even close. And yet…
This podcast about two sisters investigating their own great-grandfather (George Hodel) for the Black Dahlia crime is convincing, creepy and incredibly well made. More to the fact, it has the same terrible energy that makes Ellroy’s book so fascinating.
2.
GOD HATES BRISBANE (New Music)
I’ve been listening to two intense records out of my home town of Brisbane.
The first: Future of Illusion by Deaf Cult. A fully-fledged shoegaze band only one album ago, Deaf Cult are now something else entirely. And let me tell you, they really trawl the lake on their new one, finding Bad Mooning Rising era Sonic Youth and early AmpRep. The way they mix it all together is the truly wild part. Insanely ambitious, it hints at all sorts of unheard and heavy possibilities.
The other thing I’ve liked from back home is this single ‘Waist Deep’ by Slow Cut. The whole thing is extremely competent (and beautifully captured) post-metal, until the middle section which has a truly great vocal part. I can hear so much in it, the ghosts of so many Australian noise-rock bands past.
3.
LANA AMMO (Clip)
This requires no explanation whatsoever. Everyone loves her.
4.
LIAM YOUNG: PLANETARY REDESIGN (Exhibition, NGV)
A collection of documentary film and video work, Planetary Redesign is pitched as a deep dive on what a sustainable future may look like, but it’s far from a paleo-style return to the Earth and community. Quite the opposite in fact. The speculative work featured here bristles with cyberpunk energy, geeking out on the big, complex machines that may end up saving us. Beautiful.
5.
MAGIC MOUNTAIN (Image)
The under construction theme park on the Gold Coast, some time in the 1960s.
END OF LIST
— IAIN
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