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!