good news, the Weed Hounds LP has finally come out:
http://icoulddietomorrow.blogspot.com/2014/09/new-katorga-works-release-weed-hounds.html

cripes. time flies. more new good music this year than I can shake a cat at, and generally more interested in listening to it than talking about it (given that I have a spare sec to do anything…)

Anyway – Total Control’s 2nd LP Typical System just showed up in the mail. Here’s the stream:
https://ironlungpv.bandcamp.com/album/typical-system-lp
going to spin it shortly, but hoping this is all anywhere near as good as their early singles, first album, and the 1 song pre-released

Kindling’s “Spare Room” album is one of the best things I’ve heard so far in 2014.
https://disposablepop.bandcamp.com/album/spare-room
2-piece lo-fi fuzz pop shoegaze whatever… probably not too far out from yer Black Tambourine/Slumberland Recs territory… been on near constant loop for the last week since discovering… need I mention it features a very very tasty cover of Wire’s “The 15th”, one of my favorite songs ever, so they got great taste, bud… Anyway, this appears to be a digital stream _only_, I see no evidence anywhere that this has come out on vinyl, which seems like a terrible shame

On the comic book front…
The independents seem to have totally given up on providing anything new…
Brandon Graham’s Prophet run wrapped up with #45, remaining as enigmatic & mysterious as ever..
Marvel seems to have the lion’s share of anything interesting going on comic book wise… Marvel Now ended up being much more of a bust than I’s hoped given the talent pool they had – they’ve managed to do a bit better with year 2’s All-New Marvel Now…
Matt Fraction’s run on Hawkeye has been the longest run of sustained innovative mainstream comics anytime in recent memory, they are up to #20 and remain fairly interesting, best thing Fraction’s done outside of Casanova. I never liked Hawkeye as a kid, but Fraction’s really managed to humanize and deepen the character. Not a lot of costumes, not tied into ongoing mega-crossover-shared-universe-drama, unconventional storytelling, character driven… although at this point I have to admit the stretch is going on a bit long, especially considering the scheduling failures the title’s seen… kind of want to feel like I’ve gotten somewhere around now. Maybe I just need to re-read the back issues to get back into the story arc…
Marvel’s got a couple other very good series going on right now – the 3rd vol of Secret Avengers, written by Ales Kot, is consistently appealing. Not extremely strong on realism or anything, more a semi-surreal camp romp. The first volume started out fairly strong with Brubaker’s writing & concepts, quickly degenerated into flavor-of-the-month, got a shot in the arm with Warren Ellis’ excellent 6 issue run, then degenerated again with an incomprehensible and never-ending battle against androids yawn. The 2nd vol started & ended with a better premise (although the logical contradictions therein were never explored, ie plot holes you could drive a semi through), but went on way too long and got derailed by crossover nonsense. Third vol has retained my interest consistently.
In a similar flavor, Superior Foes of Spider-Man has had a very good run, up to ish 15, I believe. Terrible name, seeing as “Spider Man” is nowhere to be seen (actually a good thing), and probably seen by most a “joke book”. Features 5 minor C-list villains, it actually has much stronger characterization than almost anything Marvel’s done in recent memory (Hawkeye & Secret Avengers being probably the only exceptions), and completely outside the mainstream crossover drama that plagues Marvel’s A-list books. Characters are well-rounded and interesting (albeit bad guys), and behave according to character instead of just being cut-out stock characters doing stock things because the writer needs something to happen (ahem Bendis ahem). However, as with Hawkeye, the storyline is starting to get a bit at this point.
The crossover Original Sin started a lot better than any other mega-blockbuster-epic-event that Marvel’s had since… well, probably, ever… but ended up not having any juice in the end :( Potentially good carry on in the Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier series, especially since it is written by Ales Kot. However, this kind of thing really really needed a Warren Ellis touch to make it work (sorry.) Hoping Kot can pull it off like he’s pulled off Secret Avengers.
Speaking of Warren Ellis, we just had a few months where we were getting 3 new Ellis books every month, after about 18 months of hiatus from the comics industry. He gave Moon Knight a much needed reboot, but his run only lasted 6 issues. Those 6 issues were actually very very good – I would expect no less from Ellis… Ellis actually really deeply understands how the technology of comic books really works, so there is some mind=blown stuff in here. Unfortunately, Brian Wood takes over with #7… following a general pattern but not being anywhere so mind-blowing…
Ellis’ 1st new series at Image, called Trees, now up to issue 4, is sadly the first thing from Ellis since he stopped doing X-books in the late 90’s that hasn’t fired my synapses. Not sure what is going on with this one… I’m hoping that it is just that he’s so far ahead of me that I just don’t get it…
However, his other new Image series – Supreme Blue Rose – issue #2 just out, is far and away the bestest thing out there in comic land now. A reboot of Alan Moore’s (very interesting) reboot of Rob Liefield’s (boring) Supreme series. Anything would be spoilers… Tula Lotay’s art is fabulous!
(Just musing out loud, but it would be nice if someone could get Ellis to take over either Marvel’s Agents of Atlas and/or Cammi {from Drax/Avengers Arena/Avengers Undercover}… both have unexploited potential that Ellis could worthily tap…)
Also need to give a huge shout out for James Stekoe’s one-shot Avengers #1 100th Anniversary Special. Not entirely sure what the concept is here, but apparently we just hit approx 50 year anniversary for Marvel, and this is a hypothetical “50 years from now” issue… It is flippin’ crazy, highly recommended, one of the best single issues ever, even if you don’t care about the Avengers (like I don’t). But I am hoping this spells some more mainstream comics from Stekoe.

William Gibson’s next book “The Peripheral” is out 10/28 – baited breath.
There’s a Kicksterter for Sean Tejaratchi’s new mag “A is for Zebra”, page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/947849256/a-is-for-zebra-alphabet-book-by-sean-tejaratchi
looks beautiful…

Matt Howarth has just released a couple new digital comics, including digital reprints of the Contaminated Zone miniseries, some adult/horror rarities, and a collection of early B&W and color illos. Check it here:
http://www.bugtownmall.com/New_Matt_Howarth_Stuff-083114.htm