Dark Skies

Posting is a little off this year...kind of like the last four. But that's not the point! The point is. The point is I'm going to get caught up! I promise. This track is just the Start. I have a full hard drive of music I need to delve into and this blogs corpse will reanimate itself once again!

This is an old track from an MF Grimm Triple album. It guest features Nate Denver an acoustic 

 guy with a weird voice singing about Bts, Monsters and Dark Skies. So its a perfect track for Halloween, even if it sounds a bit sad an existential. Also you will not expect this to turn into a hihop track halfway through. Not sure if that's a good thing, but I like hiphop so that's one for the Yeahs.

MF Grimm - Dark Skies

(upload coming tomorrow)

Slowly Climbing Out of My Grave...

Back again. Like a good...or even a bad horror movie, this god damn franchise will continue until I run it into the ground. New music coming tomorrow!

The Bell Tolls

As another Halloween comes to a close I want to say thanks to everyone who visited. I was working on making a new mix for this year but just didn't have time. So I thought I would repost my old one just in case you need an hour of something to play while you hand out candy, dance or cruise around in costume.  Have a Happy Halloween!

House on Haunted Hill Starring Vincent Price

He's not in this song. At all. But he is in the movie Hause on Haunted Hill. And I did justify that enough to post a picture of cartoon Vincent Price from the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo. What I'm really saying though is that I loved that cartoon and here is also some music that vaguely ties into it. Wait a minute, why am I not posting the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo theme...I'll be right back, in the mean time, enjoy this track.

Kenny and the Friends - House on Haunted HIll

Nightmare Hop

I feel bad sometimes writing about these songs. Especially here. I thought this was a fun little song but its quite possibly the most boring Monster Mash Rockabilly Ripoff possible. It posits the sons and daughters of famous Monsters at an incredibly well behaved sockhop. They're all just nice, and dance and are monsters and that's about it. It's what would be playing on a jukebox on Halloween in the middle of Tennesee in about 1958. So basically its perfect.

Earl Patterson - Nightmare Hop

Children of the Night - Dinner with Drac

There's a whole album by the Children of the Night. It sounds like its going to be good...but its not. The music is pretty good but then the lyrics and the singing is pretty brutal and that's by Halloween gimmicky standards. But still, a rocking blues groove and lots of odd food and vampire puns? Perfect.

Children of the Night - Dinner with Drac

The Madmen - Haunted

Does a song still count as an instrumental if it only contains laughing? What if the laughing is clearly evil and malevolent? These are thoughts to consider on The Madmen's Haunted. This song is the spooky equivalent of the Reservoir Dogs Stuck in the Middle with you scene. You can totally imagine the vocalist hopping around while his band plays this smoky jangly instrumental behind him. Tying his patient to the table, pulling out his tools of torture and unleashing his evil laughs while his assistant squels in delight. 

The Madmen - Haunted

Jem and the Holograms - Fun to be Scared

You might think, wow Jem and the Holograms. You even cover weird 80's cartoon music?

Yes, yes I do. This isn't even the first time. If you've been reading since way back or just got bored and scrolled through the past history of this blog you may have already seen a post from the Real Ghostbusters soundtrack.

I wasn't a big Jem fan but when I heard there was a very specific Halloween episode with its own music I knew I had to feature it on the blog. This video is equal parts creepy, confusing and awesome. Theres flying Pumpkin spaceships, cardboard Frnakenstein's and witches. You're welcome.

Jem and the Holograms - Fun to Be Scared

Halloween (She's Coming)

Something I learned writing this psot: Holidays like Boats are apparently female. The Dead Elvi, who have one of my favorite covers of the Monster Mash wrote this dedication to Halloween. I figure its appropriate given we have one week left until it is upon us.

 The Dead Elvi - Halloween (She's Coming)

Dance Or Else

I was originally going to start off this post by saying that this is a strange song, but that goes for at least 50% of what ends up here. But still, this is the type of thing you have to just wonder how it got made. 

It's a song featuring Freddy Krueger threatening you to "Dance or Else" and apparently its about a party hosted by Freddy Krueger who isn't trying to really kill people anymore, well, as long as they dance. He does have a special dance floor according to the song, so maybe its cover with...razors or something. I don't know. Its pretty similar to the music on The Lost Boys and Teen Wolf so its pretty much perfect. 

Freddy Krueger - Dance or Else

Ghosts by the Comateens

In addition to digging up music, one of my other favorite things is coming up with images to use for all my posts. This was was pretty exciting. Apparently there was a long running DC comic called Ghosts that published at least 150 issues. This is one of the better covers I found. I like how one of hte Ghosts is terrorizing the boy but the other Ghosts are apparently just calmly riding a ghost train.

The Track is one I've never posted, by the Comateens the Vibe is more scary then the lyrics are. The song is mostly focused on a relationship or something, but he says the word Ghosts and I think you'll agree if you listen to it, it wouldn't feel out of place in any Halloween playlist.

The Comateens - Ghosts

Fright Fest II Part II Maybe Part 3

What do you get when you take Vincent Price multiply it by Nine Inch Nails and toss in a little Night of the Living Dead? Why one of my favorite Halloween Season mashups. This isn't the first, and might even be the third appearance on this blog. I try not to repost anything but this song gives me chills every year I listen to it. It slowly builds, getting more and more tense before dissipating into a quite unanswered ringing of a phone. Its a 3 and a half minute auditory horror movie and I love it.

Fettdog - Fright Fest II

Witchcraft

 There's an Elvis Version. Its not nearly as good.

 The Spiders - Witchcraft

Fright Night

Sometimes I wonder if I can keep this going. I'm always looking for new stuff and I have far more than I've ever posted but if I wasn't able to track down new stuff...well, it would be a horrifying day.

Its been almost a decade since I first saw the movie Fright Night. I have to admit, it is not my favorite movie. In fact its one of the rare 80s movies I genuinely didn't like at all. Even though its part comedy, has vampires and was filmed in the 80s. This should be the perfect combination of things I enjoy and yet it didn't do it for me. Maybe that's why I never knew it had a great theme. Well, great as in ridiculously silly. But that's the backbone of this blog.

J. Geils Band - Fright Night

Monster Motion

Being into Halloween I would have to love the Monster Mash. And I do. Anyone who doesn't enjoy it has a heart of Stone. In fact it was so popular it got its own album full of Monster related songs. Most of which sound nearly identical to the Monster Mash. This one even has the same aliteration. But it also has a great little piano line and its about zombies, ghouls, mummies...What more could you ask for?

Bobby Boris Pickett - Monster Motion

Being into Halloween I would have to love the Monster Mash. And I do. Anyone who doesn't enjoy it has a heart of Stone. In fact it was so popular it got its own album full of Monster related songs. Most of which sound nearly identical to the Monster Mash. This one even has the same aliteration. But it also has a great little piano line and its about zombies, ghouls, mummies...What more could you ask for?

 Bobby Boris Pickett - Monster Motion

Highway Reaper

So I've been doing this so long sometimes I forget what I have and haven't posted and have to dig in the search to see what has been up before. Now this has been up, but...it only appeared in an hourlong mix I made way back years ago. So maybe you heard it before and thought damn I wish it wasn't in that mix, or maybe you're thinking "I don't pay that much attention to this blog, in fact I don't know how I got here.

BUT before you leave, check out Highway Reaper. Its a mashup of Don't Fear the Reaper and a cover of AC/DC's Highway to Hell. And its pretty excellent. One of my favorite Mashups from the Son of Monster Mashup album that came out over a decade ago now.

Divide and Kreate - Highway Reaper

Alfred Hitchcock

Wow! I can't believe I've been doing this almost 10 years now and I haven't posted the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Its a great theme, one I first heard as a kid on Nick at Night.

I was only 4-5 so most of that show went over my head but I could tell it was scary. The stories were always more of a thriller type then something gruesome like Tales of the Crypt but that didn't make them any less haunting. In fact as I've gotten older the things that are more within the realm of reality are what scares me more than monsters and demons. No disrespect to Monsters and Demons.

Alfred Hitchcock and Jeff Alexander Orchestra - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Theme
 

Night of the Phantom

I remember a few years back I first heard Larry and the Blue Notes Night of the Sadist or as its sometimes titled the Night of the Phantom for radio stations that found Sadist to be a little too dark.

The original is a scuzzy garage rock classic. So what's this one? A Scuzzy Post Punk classic by the Last Drive Off of their album Underworld Shakedown (Great title right?) It's pretty similar but the vocals are a little more whiskey worn and the guitar carries a little more buzz but its just as much the classic as the original. In fact it might even go better if thrown into a little Halloween Mix.

Hope you enjoy the first track of this years Sonic Spooky Soundtrack.

The Last Drive - The Night of the Phantom

Who You Gonna Call? I'm Back

Back for 2015. I've Risen from my Grave. I almost forgot about this place. The Voodoo must have worked a little too well...

The Werewolf by Night Halloween Mix

I can't believe I've been doing this for nine years now! Wow. Almost 250 posts. I wanted to repost one of my prouder moments since I started. This is a mix I made full of great Halloween songs. Its nearly an hour with everything from Werewolves of London to The Monster Mash.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

The Monster

So by now, if you follow this blog, you can tell I listen to damn near anything. Why doesn't music like this ever come back. Some Lead singers, some chorus, some rocking bop saxophone. Can't that work? Or does everything need to be autotune over digital beats. Hell I like electronic too, Its just not the only thing I want to hear.

Anyways, old man rant aside. I love this song. By Billy Ford and His Thunderbirds, or according to the info I have, Billy is Billy and The Thunderbirds consist of one girl, Lillie. Billie is the proverbial Monster of Rock N Roll.

Evil Ways

You might remember a previous post from Black Mountain. They're an amazing stoner rock band that sounds like mud sludge waves hitting shore. They also have both female and male vocalists so they're songs can shift between haunting or more aggressive.

Evil Ways is from their album In the Future.

Screamin'

With a verse that sounds like a creepy haunted carnival, any song called Screamin' had to make the blog. More to the point its music from one of my favorite bands ever. Miracle Legion, later known as Polaris on the Adventures of Pete and Pete. I shared one of their songs before, The Monsters Loose. Despite the carnival atmosphere its kind of a murky depressing song with a chorus of going "Straight for the Rocks" It kind of sneaks up on you but I love this and frontman Mark Mulcahy. They're actually going on tour this fall as Polaris. I highly suggest you catch them if they're in your area.

Here's the remaining dates.
Knitting Factory, Brooklyn NY
11/28 – Johnny Brenda’s, Philly PA
11/29 – Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore MD

Halloween

Normally I don't post a lot of Metal. It's almost too easy to find a Iron Maiden song featuring Satanic imagery. Not that I don't dig the genre itself. This song however is absolutely perfect. Called Halloween it's off of Mastodon's most recent album. If you like bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, you'll like Mastodon.

 Mastodon - Halloween

I Walked With A Zombie...Last Night

I think some of my favorite songs ever written were by Roky Erickson. He just writes these amazing little pop hooks that are on par with almost anything the Beatles came up with. The thing is, most of those songs are about ghosts, demons, zombies or cold nights for alligators so they don't quite get their proper due.

This is the second song I've posted from a compilation called Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. From the late 80s, its a pretty amazing collection of popular alt acts at the time playing covers of some of Erickson's best songs.

R.E.M. - I Walked With a Zombie

Thrillah

Went through the archives...was shocked to see I had never posted one of my favorite covers of Thriller...the reggae version by Easy Star Allstars. Now you might be averse to reggae but honestly this version is just great. The shuffling rhythm lends something completely different to the song.

Being that zombies are most prominent in Haiti and New Orleans it only makes sense their music would naturally be closer to the tropic shuffling of reggae right?

Witch Queen of New Orleans

You might know Redbone from a a movie Called Guardians of the Galaxy. Their song, Come and Get Your Love was featured prominently. Its a great funky soul classic rock song, but they have a pretty full discography of great music.

Witch Queen of New Orleans is just one of them. I've even heard it described as a country song, which I can see. Its even got a creepy chant like chorus and mentions of Voodoo. Not to mention the haunting drone of what might be a theremin?

Redbone - Witch Queen of New Orleans

Ghouls

This track is from a band I've featured before. Wooden Shjips are a semi psychadelic garage rock band from San Francisco and they, like many garage bands occasionally veer into the supernatural. Their album West is one o my favorites and has a gorgeous picture of the Golden Gate bridge. Their newest album isn't quite as beautiful, and definitely doesn't have any ghoulish imagery so I had to go with an illustration from a Ultraforce comic book. That character above is called Ghoul.

Wooden Shjips - Ghouls

Slaughter on 10th Ave

Other than the title I'm not sure I can definiitively state what makes this song spooky. But as I was thinking about it it kind of hit me, if you didn't imagine someone riding waves on a hot summer day, surf music is inherently otherworldly. Also, this has a little organ breakdown, one of the most haunted instruments there is. Enjoy this Japanese track but Takeshi Terauchi and his Blue Jeans!

Count Macabre

Theres a million reasons why every band should write a spooky Halloween song. Foremost among them, immortality. I can't find any information on the Connoisseurs but their song Count Macabre lives on thanks to it being basically a slower more ghoulish version of Yakety Yak. 

The Connoisseurs - Count Macabre

Who Let the Devil

The Fresh and Only's are one of my favorite newer bands from San Francisco. They do jangly psychadelia. Kind of a mix between Athens Alt circa 1980 and the psychadelic bands that are always floating around the bay area.

Who Let the Devil is off their new album House os Spirits. If that isn't Halloween centric I don't know what is.

The Fresh and Onlys - Who Let the Devil

Opening Titles

This guy Umberto is amazing. All his stuff is basically 70s or 80s inspired horror music for movies that haven't been made. But this one right here, Opening Titles is a song that just immediately makes you think of the credits showing as a series of angles slowly creeps in on a house in autumn. It could be a ghost movie, a slasher, who knows, but it sounds haunting. I really should have made this the first track of the blog this year but clearly I haven't been doing a good job in the way of planning. I hope you enjoy it anyways! Umberto - Opening Titles

Jimmy and the Munsters

Being both a huge fan of Jimmy Smith and Halloween music, it shocks me I didn't find this until the last year. Off of Jimmy Smith's Monster album it features his loose funky cover of the Munsters theme. 

If you're wondering who Jimmy Smith is he's a famous pianist/organist who was sampled on the Beastie Boys Root Down. His album, Live at the Root Down is Amazing.

Thriller (Sabo Moombahton Remix)

One of the reasons I do this blog isn't just that I love Halloween but 2of my favorite songs, spookiness not withstanding are Thriller and the Monster Mash. I've heard a lot of remixes of Thriller....most of them not really doing anything to change it for the better or even offer much of a different take. This one though is near perfect. Still won't top the original but it strips most of Michael Jackson's vocals but maintains Vincent Price...probably my favorite part of the song.

In place of Michael theres a digital synth that takes over and it still works. This is the Thriller the zombies dance to once they've taken over the world.

Michael Jackson - Thriller (Sabo Moombahton Remix)

It Gets Dark...

Okay so I now its late and I hope you keep checking back. I knew I needed to start with a good one and besides the name of the song I think its a grea into to Halloween. The one thing thats always synonymous with Halloween is the rapidly approaching night. In Summer where I live the Sun is out to almost 10 but by October its almost completely gone by 7. The experience in the city changes. Things that were typically done through the beaming orange glow of sundown are done amidst a cool breeze, a black night and crunchy leaves. Its hard not to feel Halloween approaching.

This song is a great dance track but it has an ominous vocal throughout. It sounds like the credit sequence to a horror film and would make a great segway into something like Thriller.

Holy Ghost - It Gets Dark

Its Alive...Reanimated for 2014

Late on the post but just wanted to let everyone know: I"M BACK.

More posts coming tomorrow!

The Munsters Theme by Insatiable

Its been a long time since I posted (anything) a ska song. Or a Munsters cover. But here it is, what is probably the last song of the Ghost Town for This year. It starts out normal and slowly gets slower and then crazier. Enjoy!

Insatiable - The Munsters Theme

The Ghost Town Presents Ghosttown

Ahh, this is a really new cover and I discovered it a while back and was gonna wait to post it. I think my laziness (which is due to me moving and a million other things happening) decries that this is the perfect time.

This cover is by the Hot 8 Brass Band who also have an amazing cover of sexual healing. The original is by the Specials and is a classic song. You might remember it from Shaun of the Dead when Shaun awakes hungover as zombies are staggering across the city although he doesn't notice.

Anyways, this slow squirmy song is a pretty good selection for a version done by a New Orleans Brass band. They seem to be good at making things sneak and crawl smoothly.

Hot 8 Brass Band - Ghost Town

Rockin' the Graveyard

There's part of me that thinks I've posted this before but I couldn't find a trace of it...although I'm admittedly feeling a little tired and lazy so...who knows. This is a old rockabilly song that starts out with some great spooky whistling and an evil laugh. Its by Jackie Morningstar which sounds more like a Vegas show host type name then a Rockabilly singer but its a good track.

Jackie Morningstar - Rockin' The Graveyard

Chariots of Pumpkins

This song was actually inspired in an incredibly roundabout way but the image above is relevant. I was listening to Kevin Smith's Podcast called Fatman on Batman. I had never really gotten into podcasts but had heard of it and since I liked comic books gave it a shot since he was interviewing some interesting people who had been involved in the batman cartoon show of the early 90s. I must have watched every episode a million times as a kid so it seemed interesting. I also used to collect and read comics a lot as a kid and still try and read things here and there. Recent favorites like DMZ, Batman the Long Halloween and Y the Last Man amongst others.

Anyways, during one of his podcasts he was interviewing some of the people responsible for the more recent Batman animated movies that have been coming out direct to dvd. One of them was the composer and Kevin Smith got to talking about how one of his first vinyl purchases was getting the soundtrack to Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. My favorite story was him turning on the soundtrack as he tried to make out with a girl and shockingly that did not go well.

It does go well with Halloween however. This version is a lot more electronic sounding and drives a little harder than the original. Also its called Chariots of Pumpkins witch is just awesome.

John Carpenter - Chariots of Pumpkins