Monster Mash

To follow up the Monster Mash ripoff I posted yesterday I posted an old cover of the Monster Mash by the Mighty Echoes. This song is a doo wop with no instruments or backing music. It was down to this and another Monster Mash cover but this one was odd enough and good enough that it took the prize this year. I guess the Mighty Echoes are a acapella/doo wop group from Southern California that started in the 80s. That makes them around the same era as Rockapella...which makes me hope both bands were each other's worst enemies and battled it out like the image above.

The Mighty Echoes - Monster Mash

Nightmare Mash

You can't really come much closer to ripping off a song than the Nightmare Mash. Most of the music is the very similar but it has a bouncier piano loop then the Monster Mash but the vocals and lyrics are changed. Still its a nice little song to switch up around Halloween time and still get the same effect. What's really surprising to me is that while I've found plenty of Monster Mash covers it was only recently I found the Nightmare Mash.

Billy Lee Riley - Nightmare Mash

After Hours

This is a song from the Soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Its a strange bizaare film that I might classify as horror. I caught it on cable about 10 years ago or so at 5 in the morning when I used to stay up crazy late. It was just so strange and the perfect movie for that night. It also is strangely identifiable as its just about one, not necessarily exciting but just strange night that won't end. I think we've all had one. Where all you want to do is get home but you can't whether its a flat tire or stuck at work or can't find a bus or a taxi and you just get stuck, maybe you're only 10 miles from home but somehow it feels like you'll never make it back.

The soundtrack is done by Howard Shore. It reminds me a lot of John Carpenter's early work as its very digital. Its also relatively simple and there's something really disconcerting about it all. Paired with the movie it works perfectly.

Howard Shore - Midnight

Monster Party

Mostly an instrumental this is a great little bop and rock n roll song by Bill doggest. There are some good lines though, my personal favorite being "Knock Knock, Who's there, Frankenstein, Where's the Wine". I like the idea of Frankenstein showing up hoping to get crazy drunk on good wine. There's also a lot of evil laughter and a reference to Rodan which is either the Japanese movie monster or a german sci fi hero from a series of books.

Bill Doggest - Monster Party

The Mummy's Ball

One of the things I miss is that putting out a weird supernatural themed song like this was commonplace back in the day, just something you might make to try to get big. Imagine if Kanye or Pearl Jam decided to write a song about a werewolf or a mummy. Thankfully there's so much that I'm in no danger of running out of new songs to post. My lack of daily updates notwithstanding.

The vocals on this track by The Verdicts are amazing. One of my favorites I've posted in a long while. They were a band from New York that put out some singles in the 50s and early 60s. This track is from 1961 so it was released even before the Monster Mash. That's the crazy thing is that while the Monster Mash provoked a string of similar songs after its release, horror tinged singles were nothing new in 1962.

The Verdicts - The Mummy's Ballhttp://www.sendspace.com/file/tyid0q

Randy Fuller - Wolfman

This image encompasses all ther easons why I read comics. Its a werewolf battling a vampire...on the Moon. Its like everything I love all happening at once and something that almost never would appear in a movie, and never as crazy. Plus theres even what appears to be the Werewolf's girlfriend, also on the moon. Because, well, why not?

This is a psuedo instrumental combined with Wolfman Jack adding in his own vocals over the top and also occasional howling. One of my favorite things about werewolf songs is, you might be a bad singer, but its almost impossible for you to be bad at howling. Which makes me thing maybe more than just canine's used to howl...

Maybe the Werewolf myth is a little truer than we know?
(Probably not, but that won't stop me from enjoying a good werewolf flick)

Randy Fuller - Wolfman

Tomorrow I'm gong to be on the West Coast so my posts might be crazy late. Then again they always are, so probably no difference.

Still trying to get caught up this year. When I originally started this blog it was way back in 2006, I was in school, kind of, not working and had way to much free time. It's crazy that It's almost 7 years later, I'm totally out of school, working full time, still a lot hasn't changed. I'm definitely just as bad at time management, the biggest difference I have less of it. I also get tired easier. Stupid getting old...I need a recharge and a lightnight bolt through my hair. I think that would help.

The Squalls are a mid 80s band that came from Athens, Georgia. You can here some similarities to some of the other Athens Bands like REM but these guys are a little more upbeat than some of their alt contemporaries. It kind of reminds me of a hybrid of Huey Lewis and the News and Simple Minds...if that makes any sense at all. Still a good song.

Squalls - Bride of Frankenstein

Embodiment of Evil

Finally this year for the First Time I saw the Meat Puppets live. You could tell they've been playing together for decades. They went through a lot of songs without much banter just grooving into one song from the next during a nice night last July. I had meant to see them a few other times but never got around to getting tickets but managed to catch an outdoor festival they were playing at. I think I may have posted a Meat Puppets song in this past but I thought this was a cool little instrumental with a spooky flavor. I highly reccomend their stuff especially their 80s albums.

Meat Puppets - Embodiment of Evil

Blue Ghost

Today is another old one. Bubblegum pop that I don't listen to a lot but is good in small doses. I can't hear this stuff without thinking about Mr. Sandman playing during the scene in Back to the Future when Marty first walks into 1955 Hilly Valley. One of my favorite films of all time, I've probably scene it a few too many times. I always wanted to go as Marty but don't think I could pull it off for too many reasons.

Readers what are you going as this year?

Tommy Roe with the Jordanaires - Blue Ghost

Spook Walk

So last year in the midst of posting and October's craziness I had ended up suffering a hard drive failure and so I lost track of a big folder of stuff I had organized and gotten ready to post. Luckily I was able to find a lot of it, and even more than that realized some great songs I thought I posted are still just waiting.


I really love this Song called The Spook, by of all bands, the Spooks. Not necessarily the most creative guys on the planet but this could easily be the backing music to a late 50s or early 60's drive-in movie. I can already see the poorly filmed surf van driving to the beach where, well something stupid happens. It was a drive-in movie so, the point wasn't the plot but a rubber monster costume and maybe a car crash or two.

The Spooks - The Spook

Midnight

Tonights featured song is a little loose as far as it being paranormal or gruesome. Titled Midnight its not quite about anything more than heading out once it gets dark, but sometimes thats enough to be spooky. I was just riding my bike through the faded leaves on a trail underneath an overpass with no lights anywhere around me, that alone made everything seem just creepy enough, werewolf howl's weren't even necessary.

A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight

Somebody's Watching Me

 What's the best thing about being the son of the founder of Motown Records? Getting Michael Jackson on your record, easily selling millions...It has it's advantages. Rockwell put out his first album Somebody's Watching Me in 1985 and got Michael Jackson to sing the hook. It's got a fun if not surprisingly cheap video that does not feature Michael Jackson

This is a remixed version...it's more spooky I guess? Its mostly similar there's just what I might call a haunted breakdown in the middle of the track.

Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me

Manfred Mann - Devil Woman

I don't even know how to quite describe this song. Its like Manfredd Man doing a weird Rolling Stones x Tom Waits distillation. Its got a weird smoky brass New Orleans vibe. It really started to get to me the more I listened to it. I really dig it, and was quite excited when I discovered it as sometimes I worry that I've already posted all the good stuff but its nice to prove myself wrong.

Also, I had to resist using a picture of of an ex for a post image. But this is from Marvel comics so I like it way better.

Manfred Mann - Devil Woman

I'm Alive...

Crazy week, had to deal with a break-in at my house, work and everything else.

But trust me, posts are coming. Adding one more tonight and more tomorrow.

Goblin Town

This may be the last post this year. I realize this was my laziest year of posting and I wish it hadn't been such a clusterfuck. But I'm hoping to maybe continue to keep up the blog with once a week posts. I also have some other plans to build on the blog for anyone that might be interseted in seeing more besides just music. Hopefully you enjoyed what i posted this year. There was plenty I wish I had gotten up but I still have plenty more to eventually ad. Hopefully you had a good Halloween and I hope to see you back soon.

This is a track that's a remix from the Goblin's song in the animated version of the Hobbit. I figure sine Goblins are Halloween affiliated even if those particular Goblins aren't this still counts...right?

Mux Mool - Goblin Town

Devil Within

I guess the guy above is called Kid Devil...of course he is.

This track is by a band I've featured in the past called Midnight Juggernauts. They're from Australia. They're very similar to Cut Copy and Justice, plus they have a lot of haunted tracks!

Midnight Juggernauts - Devil Within

Skull-Eyed

You want demonic garage rock? Look no further then Texas. The Mind Spiders (which sounds creepy enoughas it is) are fromTexas and they specialize in grimy licks and haunted vocals. They just put out a new album this year and are relatively young.

I'm hoping to double or triple up on the posts tomorrow to better fulfill my full Halloween posts. Stay tuned.

The Mind Spiders - Skull-Eyed

Man or Astro-man? - Munsters Theme

Quick post. This is just a real short, perfectly executed by the band Man or Astro-Man. They're from Alabama and have some great surf rock/Sci-fi/Halloween tunes. They recently got back together to do some recording. You may have heard them previously from a relatively famous cover of MST3K.

Man or Astro-man? - The Munsters Theme
 

The Witches of Eastwick

I don't know if I'm the only one on the planet who watched Eastwick when it was on ABC a few years back. It wasn't especially good but a new show about witches in October pulled me in. They canceled it after an appropriate 13 episodes though. Theres also a movie with Jack Nicholson which...I think I've seen. It was the 80s, Im pretty sure Jack was coked out of his mind.

This is a hip hop remix from Cookin' Soul's Night of the Living Dead 3 mixtape. Featuring Big L and Big Pun its got the menace and spooky vibes you need for Halloween.

Cookin' Soul - The Witches of Eastwick

Dracula

I decided to start to dig into some music archives that were a little more accessible due to my primary computer still being down. This one is from the great Lucky Dube from Jamaica. There's actually a great Reggae Halloween blog over at Distinctly Spooky Jamaican Sounds and while I haven't checked there's a good chance this has been posted over there at some point in the archives. Jamaica is one trip I'd love to make, although I really wish I had been able to go back during the roots era of the late 70s and early 80s. Someday I'll make it though, maybe I'll find some great Halloween tracks if I do.

Lucky Dube - Dracula