High precision ghosts
Getting ready for autumn with young adult angst, meditative folk music, and a heaping helping of horror
How’s it going, everyone? Right now, I’ve got my eye towards spooky season — as always. I’m an autumn baby, which you may or may not have already guessed from my mysterious Scorpio demeanor, and the fall has always struck me as a perfect time for reflection, renewal, and getting the shit scared out of you. Prepare the Over the Garden Wall rerun — just a couple degrees lower on the thermostat, and I’ll be in my prime.
To that end, there’s a little more horror movie coverage in the mix today than my usual bent. Tonight I’m planning on settling in with a cozy cup of tea to catch up on some of the scary movies I’ve missed so far. Up next (so far) is Saint Maud, but I’m taking suggestions.
Here’s what’s in my current rotation:
“Impulse” — Teamonade
As someone who both recently bought a car and is trying to plan out a new stage of late-capitalist young adulthood, this July release from the Ohio-based indie act Teamonade has been hitting all the right notes for me lately. The combination of that twangy acoustic guitar intro and the midwest-emo electrics as the vocals kick in is just great, as is the work of vocalist Osi Okoro, whose pre-show rituals apparently include “screaming like a siren.”
Also, I found this off of Blvck Hippie’s playlist of music by Black-fronted indie bands, which is a must-listen for any indie aficionado — it’s been my daily soundtrack whenever I take my silly little trips out of the house.
Frank Watkinson
While the weather is cooling down, let me present you with a nice old man’s YouTube channel that’s full of lovely acoustic guitar recordings and has nothing to do with stalking Jodie Foster and trying to kill Reagan. I first found Frank Watkinson through a Sufjan Stevens cover a few years back, and he’s been one of my favorite accounts ever since.
Watkinson’s gentle fingerstyle covers (often sourced via listener requests) range from Cat Stevens to Slipknot, and the intermittent appearance of his dogs in the background of his living room recordings makes each one even better. Lately, he’s finally started putting his music on Spotify, sharing more of his personal life with tongue-in-cheek vlogs, and showing off his original compositions.
“House of Mirrors” — Softcult
Softcult frame themselves as “music for mall goths” — a fitting description for this two-person queer punk girl band. Their fuzzy, distortion-heavy tracks draw a nice permeable line between shoegaze and grunge-punk that makes use of a surprising amount of birdsong samples. Last week, they released this video for their fittingly-spooky song “House of Mirrors,” which focuses on the fear of not living up to the expectations of those around you. This is prime “driving around your hometown in the middle of the night” music, so get it while the getting is good and the windows can roll down, you yearning teens and teens-at-heart.
Softcult also has a keen eye to their fan community that makes them feel super accessible, like they’re everyone’s cool older cousin. I’m excited for the next monthly zine to come out, and their fan Discord server is pretty sweet, especially the “Rate a Rat” channel.
This NPR News story about two different $1300 horror marathon opportunities, one exclusively Stephen King-themed
Call me a blasphemer, but I feel like if you’re going to subject someone to a scary movie marathon with this kind of payout, some films in the Stephen King adaptation oeuvre may not necessarily be the place to start. Sure, I’m a sucker for Carrie and there’s plenty of classics to be had in the mix, but I’m intrigued to see how the company-provided FitBit tracks the heartbeat of someone watching this dialogue snippet from IT: Chapter Two:
Bill Denbrough [looking at an artifact]: Whoa, what am I looking at, Mike?
Mike Hanlon: It’s an artifact.
...Nice.
Wyatt Oleff’s incredibly specific horror movie career
Speaking of the Losers’ Club, I recently made the connection that this same kid has so far played not one but two different sidekick characters named Stanley in YA-centric horror franchises. He’s Stanley Uris in the latest IT adaptations (a character who deserved better in the book as much as Oleff did in this role), and Stanley Barber in I Am Not Okay With This — a cute, quick binge from the early stages of the pandemic’s easily-digestible-horror wave, where he has a funky little montage grooving out to Prefab Sprout. I don’t know why I find this so obsession-worthy, but I do. Something something Stranger Things-ification of all modern teen horror?
Obviously, the next step is for him to star in a Truman Show/I’m Still Here-style Charlie Kaufman piece about the blending of performance and reality. They can pay homage to Derry, Maine and call it Stan By Me.
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