Happy Halloween!

Once again we've made it through 31 days of great Halloween music, without even a murmur of "The Monster Mash" echoing from the dungeon!  So what is 2012's most hallowed Halloween song?

Well, it's not just one song, but two: "Halloween 1 & 2" by The Misfits!  The first is an ode to all things both fiendish and nostalgic about the holiday (the "brown leafed vertigo" line gets me every time), and the second is mostly in Latin and seems to be a sort of incantation for becoming a werewolf.  The band was featured on this blog last year (#16), for their ode to horror hostess great Vampira, and in my opinon is the greatest horror rock band ever. 

To me, today's songs are Halloween itself distilled into a few short minutes.  The bonfires are burning bright, there are pumpkin faces in the night... and I don't just remember Halloween, I'm living it right now!

 

That's it for another great month of fun and scary music!  Hope to scare you again next year, but until then, bad dreams darlings, stay sick, and good night, whatever you are!!!

T-minus 1



Nick Cave in Wings of Desire

Only one day until Halloween, and things are getting spookier by the minute!  In today's song we're going to hear the tale of a myseriously missing carny and his unforunately present horse Sorrow, courtesy of spook-master Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds.

"The Carny" first appeared on Cave's 1986 album Your Funeral... My Trial, but also gained recognition as one of the songs Cave performed in the 1987 Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire.  That film concerns invisible angels in Berlin who listen in on human thoughts and comfort those in distress, and sometimes desire to become human themselves.  In a sublime chain of influence, both "The Carny" and Wings of Desire inspired animator Marc Craste to make 2004's Jo Jo in the Stars, which is a dazzling 12-minute animated film featured below.

Jo Jo in the Stars

"The Carny" is pretty much a short story itself, and features the de rigueur blend of menacing, gothic weirdness and disparate music styles that we've come to know and love from Nick Cave.  And one must wonder, where did that carny go?  I say it's funny how things go. 

T-minus 2

Seen any good horror movies this month?  Today's song asks all those pesky questions that we're not supposed to ask during horror movies, like why do lovers always park down deserted lanes near haunted houses and homes for the insane? 

"The Axe Murderer Song" comes from Camper Van Beethoven's 1993 album Camper Vantiquities, which compiled several of the band's B-sides and rarities.  Formed in California in the early 80s, the band became a college radio staple before disbanding in 1990.  Members then went on to play in several other influential 90s bands, such as Cracker and Counting Crows, but in 1999 Camper Van Beethoven reunited and have been releasing new work, touring, and asking the hard questions (like why do axe murderers only attack when you're partially nude?)  ever since. 

 

T-minus 3

It's the last day of the last weekend before Halloween -- do you have your tricks and treats ready to go?  Mine are bursting at their stitches, so ready or not, I'm letting one of my tricks slip out with today's song!

To wit: you know how this weekend is a tribute to perhaps the eeriest city in the nation, right?  Well, although I do love New Orleans and all the songs that extol its spookiness, the real reason for this weekend's theme is that I also LOVE CHER and I've been dying to find a way to include her on this blog.  Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean that I love Cher ironically, or with the detached kind of appreciation that I might hold for, say, Neil Diamond; I really, truly, from the bottom of my black little heart LOVE CHER.  I think she's a great artist and a national treasure and should perhaps be on our money one day.

So what could be better than Cher singing a New Orleans-based spooky song that's suitable for Halloween listening?  Why, an animated Cher singing a New Orleans-based spooky song that's suitable for Halloween listening, of course!  "Dark Lady" comes from her 1974 album of the same title and was written by a member of surf rock group The Ventures.  The story concerns a woman who goes to see a fortune teller in New Orleans, from whom she learns about her lover's unfaithfulness.  Although Cher sings from the perspective of the cheating victim, in the cartoon she's the fortune teller, which makes for a bit of a meta-Cher experience.  I mean, who else could pull off being the yin to her own yang?  Cher today, Cher forever!

T-minus 4

Continuing our trip through the land of haunted bayous, today we're taking a ride a ride a ride a ride a ride with Southern Culture on the Skids in their Voodoo Cadillac! 

Southern Culture on the Skids appeared on this blog a couple of times last year (in #9 and #10), and have obviously made a number of creeptastic contributions to Halloween music.  In fact, in addition to their recently re-released album Zombified, which consists entirely of songs of a spooky nature, their first album from 1985 was called Voodoo Beach Party.  Although many of their songs hold true to the southern influences that the band's name suggests (such as the joys of fried chicken, banana pudding, and high, high hair), they also draw heavily from the look and sound of old horror films.

"Voodoo Cadillac" is the first track off their most commercially successful album, 1995's Dirt Track Date, and has the bluesy, little-bit-dangerous sound one might expect from a song about a trip to New Orleans in a possessed muscle car.  Let's ride!    

T-minus 5

Halloween in New Orleans

Today is the first day of the last theme weekend of the year, and kicking off our tribute to the spooktacular city of New Orleans is the title song of Concrete Blonde's most commercially successful album, 1990's Bloodletting.  Technically the song is called "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)," which gives you an idea of where this is going.


Of course New Orleans has become infamous for Anne Rice's vampires, but it is also home to numerous vampire tours, balls, and legends, and even a vampire film festival.  In "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)," a poor soul seems to have had a bad case of vampirism slapped on her and is now headed down to New Orleans to think the situation over.  Don't you just hate that?  You think you can trust somebody and then it turns out they're undead.



    

T-minus 6

As Lou Reed says, Halloween in New York City is something, to be sure, and part of what makes it so special also happens to be the title of today's song: "Halloween Parade."  The Village Halloween Parade has been taking place every Halloween night since 1974 and is currently the country's largest public Halloween event. 






The parade is put on by the people and for the people, and is renowned for its unbounded creativity.  Giant puppets, live bands, circus performers, and thousands of costumed participants walk the parade route (Sixth Avenue from Spring St. to 21st St.) every year.  


Lou Reed's song (from his 1989 album New York) pays homage not only to the Halloween Parade itself, however, but also uses the parade's revelry as a lens to chronicle friends he lost to the AIDS epidemic.  Flamboyant characters are mentioned in each verse, then lamented in the chorus: "This Halloween is something to be sure/Especially to be here without you."  This creates a somber tone, but the joy of the event and the people who take part in it still comes through.  

Having attended the Halloween Parade several times myself, this song puts me right back there amongst the "Born Again Losers and Lavendar Boozers," and makes me wish I could be in New York this Halloween to experience the show again.