The friendliest ghost you know!

To watch all of those ghost hunter shows that litter the airwaves these days, you'd think all specters want to do is vex loudmouth dudes in Ed Hardy shirts. But can you blame them? Who wouldn't want to scare those guys away. Fact is, some ghosts can be perfectly nice, not to mention adorable, as we know from the 75-year-old (but ever childlike) ghost Casper.

Casper began life (or death?) in 1939 as a character in an unpublished children's book, and then sprang from its pages in his own 1945 animated shorts. Unlike most of his other ghostly compatriots, however, Casper has never been interested in scaring humans. Instead, he wants to befriend them and every other living thing, as his theme song declares. Trouble is, Casper often spooks without meaning to because people can't see past his ghostly veneer. Ironic, since Casper is in fact see-through.

Casper has starred in comic books and cartoons throughout his life/deathtime, and in 1995 a live-action Casper film was made featuring a computer-animated Casper. Today's song was the theme for that movie--a rousing rendition of the classic Casper song performed by Little Richard! So put that EVP meter down and just give this friendly little ghost a chance. He's really glad to meetcha!

Bonus! Check out the first-ever Casper cartoon, 1945's "The Friendly Ghost." Casper was a bit portlier then, and the tone of the story is a bit darker (Casper tries to kill himself even though he's already dead), but the cartoon sets up the premise that pretty much every other Casper story would follow.

Poe vs. King: SMACKDOWN!

Ever wondered who would win in an Edgar Allan Poe vs. Stephen King grudge match? Of course you have, and lucky for you, the fine folks at Epic Rap Battles of History have, too. This summer, the YouTube video series released an installment pitting America's reigning princes of literary darkness against each other in a war of rapid-fire words. These guys aren't just masters of the macabre, they're crack smack talkers who pull no punches. 

What's scarier--the Raven or Cujo? The House of Usher or the hotel in The Shining? A marriage to a 13-year-old cousin or a nonstop onslaught of 500-page books? You decide!

Dead can dance!

If you ever get down New Orleans way, you might steer clear on St. Joseph's Day. According to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, that's when the graveyard bones make a rattling sound and the dead get up and start walking around.

Of course New Orleans is known for its macabre sensibility, as profiled on this blog a couple years ago during a whole New Orleans theme weekend. And no one could be more steeped in they city's character than the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which has been keeping traditional New Orleans jazz alive in the French Quarter and around the world since the early 1960s. The band was started by a jazz historian who wanted to preserve New Orleans jazz, and although membership in the band has changed over the years, that original goal has consistently been realized.

Tradition alone often isn't enough to keep a whole genre of music alive, however, so just last year the band released its very first album of all-original compositions, called That's It! The album is both traditional and forward-looking, as you might detect in today's song, "Rattlin' Bones." While sticking close to the traditional style, it still sounds new and vibrant. If you don't wanna see 'em, though, you best stay home, cuz there ain't no running round the rattling bones...

10/4, Good Buddy

Standing out here on the open road with my thumb pointing toward gone, I'm reminded that it was exactly one year ago today, on a day just like this one, that I saw the worst accident I ever seen... Wait, no, that's not right. Today is 10/4--exactly one year ago today I posted a trucking song on this blog in honor of Good Buddy Day!

That means it's time once again to hitch a ride with a ghost, or in this case four ghosts: the members of country music supergroup The Highwaymen. "Highwayman" was the group's biggest hit and essentially their theme song, in which Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash each portray the ghosts of different traveling men over time, from Wild West days to space travel. 

Each verse ends with an assurance that the man is still living on past his untimely death. Johnny Cash gets the last, most powerful verse, in which he imagines what he might be when he returns--another highwayman? A single drop of rain? Now that we've actually lost two of the Highwaymen, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, I like to think Cash's verse is prophetic. The world will be a much better place if those two keep coming back again, and again, and again...

Dudes with boobs growing in tubes!

The future as designed by Neko Case and Kelly Hogan? Yes, please. Beam me up! 

"These Aren't the Droids" comes from the new comedy theme album 2776: A Millenium of American Asskickery, on which folks like Margaret Cho, Yo La Tengo, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and Nina Totenberg(!) try to prove that America is great so an alien won't destroy it. As Neko Case and Kelly Hogan so astutely point out, though, America's future ain't gonna be quite so asskickin' if we continue to let teenage boys imagineer it for us. Three-boobed aliens on stripper poles? Shiny sexbots with only holes? Boooooring. It's way past time for a revolution to your hairless post-apocalyptic constitution!

Neko and Kelly don't just point out the problem in their melodious diatribe, however. They offer a plan for action: 

• No war, just Greco-Roman wrestling!
• No waxing, no shaving, everybody'd have more hair!
• A fundamental appreciation of literacy, but less shades of gray!
• Girl power would be an actual fuel source with zero carbon footprint!
• Baskets of kittens everywhere!

And so much more. Won't you leave those space silver moon boots behind and step into the future?

Evil prevails. (duh)

Papa don't preach, but today's song has such a dirty swagger that I think it may have aurally knocked me up with devil babies. Rosemary, honey. I feel ya. 

The brothers Calabrese have been playing horror punk together since 2002 and tonight they will be playing it right here in my town, along with Knoxville's own horror punks, La Basura Del Diablo! The three Calabrese lads grew up obsessing over horror and monsters (who didn't?), and in high school began playing separately in various rock bands. When the eldest graduated from college, the brothers coalesced as a band and have released six albums since. Today's song, "There Is An Evil Inside," comes from their most recent album, Born With A Scorpion's Touch. It almost out-Danzigs Glenn Danzig himself in the Evil Elvis sneer department.  

Evil prevails on the night you left your home, and that'll certainly be true tonight in Knoxville. Go see 'em while you can!

Back to the grind(house)!

"Zombie Dance" by Aaron Fernandez

My coffin lid just flew open, so that can mean only one thing--all of the sickeningly rotten, frighteningly unholy, and thrillingly sleazy songs that I've kept ripening in the dirt all year are ready to be released! As anyone who has read this blog in past years will know, the ceremony always begins with a Cramps song, and this year is no different.

"Zombie Dance" comes from the band's classic first album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, and tells the tale of a pre-Thriller zombie shindig, where Ben and Betty can tap their toes all night long and never get sweaty. Do they give a damn, though? Hell no, they're done dead already! Get ready to do the swim face down, kiddies, cuz this ain't your momma's monster mash...

Happy Halloween!

What is the awesomest part about flying across the country on Halloween? Is it that the stewardesses pass out fun-size candy bars to everyone on the plane at six in the morning? That people in the airport are dressed like clowns and witches and TSA officers? (Well, I guess that last one makes sense.) That I gained three more hours of Halloween when I reached Los Angeles? All of these things are pretty fantastic, but the best, most awesomest part of this Halloween is that in just a few hours, I'll be seeing Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark herself, do her stage show at Knott's Scary Farm!

Elvira did many Halloween shows at Knott's throughout the 80s and 90s, but in 2001 she and the park's new management disagreed over her contract and she hadn't done a show there since. Until now! The photos and video footage of her new show, Sinema Seance, look amazing, and I can't wait to see it in person! Here's hoping she revives the old pastie routine from the Elvira, Mistress of the Dark movie.

So what is this Halloween's most special non-"Monster Mash" song? Well, of course it has to come from Elvira. As luck would have it, she just released a new 7" on Jack White's Third Man label, featuring two songs written by Fred Schneider of the B-52s: "2 Big Pumpkins" and "13 Nights of Halloween." The packaging is super-cool--the record is pressed on purple vinyl and the sleeve is heat reactive, so when heat is applied to the Elvira-shaped black blobs on the front and back, her image is revealed. 

As luck would not have it, though, it took so long to get the packaging complete that after releasing the record for a day, Third Man decided to pull it and release it next Halloween instead. I was one of the lucky ones who ordered the album the day it was released, so I currently have one in my hot little hands. Sadly you'll have to wait until next year to hear the songs on this blog, though! Until then, here's my all-time favorite Elvira song, from her 1994 Halloween compilation Elvira Presents Monster Hits. The monster roll-call at the end always gives me the warm fuzzies--they're the monsters I adore, full of blood and guts and gore! They make me wanna scream and holler, more and more and more and aaaaahhhhhh!

Now get out there and wreak some havoc, I know I'm going to. And until we meet again next year, can't we all try a little harder to make every day more like Halloween? Remember, it's not just about the candy and the costumes and the monsters and the mischief... oh wait, yes it is. It's exactly about all those things. Happy Halloween and STAY SICK!

Nativity in Black

What if the devil fell in love and decided to clean up his act? Surely out of all the bands out there, he would most appreciate Black Sabbath telling his story, as they did in "N.I.B." on their self-titled 1970 debut album. They took their name from a Boris Karloff horror film called Black Sabbath after guitarist Tony Iommi noticed people lining up around the block to pay to be scared, and with that revelation, music history was forever changed for the darker. Black Sabbath basically defined heavy metal as a genre, with its sludgy tempos, tuned-down guitars, and lyrics dealing with horror/occult themes. 

While heavy metal lore has long held that "N.I.B." stands for "Nativity in Black," and three Black Sabbath tribute albums have been released with that name, the writer of the song, bassist Geezer Butler, swears it was a nickname for their drummer Bill Ward, whose beard looked like a pen nib. The song's storyline is unambiguous, though: "My name is Lucifer," Ozzy wails in the verses, "please take my hand." 

Even though many of Sabbath's songs deal with scary stuff, however, most are scary in much more realistic ways than "N.I.B." Songs such as "Children of the Grave," "War Pigs," and "Paranoid," are about non-violent revolution, the horrors of war, and mental instability. Their lyrics often shared peace-loving sentiments with the hippie/folk culture, but the head-on way they faced the despair and menace they saw in the world peeled away flower power's cheerful veneer and unveiled its angry underside.

After releasing eight classic albums, the band gave Ozzy the boot in 1979 because of his drug abuse and he went on to a stellar solo career. Black Sabbath continued with various singers and musicians, but in recent years, the original line-up has reunited for shows and just released their first studio album with Ozzy since 1979, titled 13. Forty-plus years ago, who would've thought these scruffy guys from Birmingham singing a love song about the devil would still be making music together today, or that they would've changed the course of music history? But they are, and they did.

The Aquabats vs. Hot Topic!

Hard to believe it's almost the end of this year's Halloweek! October has flown by on leathery bat wings, but it's not over yet--still two more days of hell to raise until the big day, and I plan to celebrate right up until the end. In fact, I'll be traveling to a different time zone on Thursday just to have the longest (and best?) Halloween ever!

After traveling back in time over the last few days to relive the gloomiest glory days of goth, I thought it would be a good idea to get out the cold cream today and wash off the pancake make-up. I mean, looking undead is great and all, but let's face it--if you don't take off the white face every now and then, you'll get zits. So if the songs from the past few days have made your lust for the funereal get a little out of hand, today's song is offered as an antidote.

"Fashion Zombies" by the Aquabats comes from their 2005 album Charge!! and spins a cautionary tale of what happens when you only shop at Hot Topic. Lest you be offended by the band's depiction of goths, however, keep in mind that this missive is coming from a group of paunchy adult men who dress in skin-tight superhero costumes and go by names like "MC Bat Commander" and "Eagle 'Bones' Falconhawk." 
The Aquabats started out in 1994 as a ska band, but in the years since, their sound has evolved to incorporate punk, New Wave, surf, and other influences. Since March of last year, they have even starred in their own children's TV show called The Aquabats! Super Show!, which is based on the band's superhero mythology and follows in the footsteps of other great children's variety shows like Sid and Marty Kroft and Pee-Wee's Playhouse. 

The video for "Fashion Zombies" gives a good feel for the band's child-friendly but adult-clever style. Is it wrong that I love this song but also own most of the clothing items lambasted in its lyrics? Aquabats, you have divided my black little heart against itself.

Trick or treat, the bitter and the sweet...

...and in the case of "Halloween" by Siouxsie and the Banshees, mostly bitter. She wears her silence like a mask, her memories like a shroud, and murmurs like a ghost--oh 1981 goth, how gloriously brooding you were!

"Halloween" comes from one of Siouxsie and the Banshees' masterwork albums, Ju Ju, which helped define goth as a genre. At the same time, the band denied the goth label: "Gothic in its purest sense is actually a very powerful, twisted genre," Siouxsie Sioux said, "but the way it was being used by jouralists--'goff' with a double 'f'--always seemed to me to be about tacky harum scarum horror, and I find that anything but scary. That wasn't what we were about at all."

Well, I'm all for tacky harum scarum horror, but certainly the haunting memory the band presents in this song is scarier than red devils or dancing undead. The band's artistry and seriousness have stood the test of time--they stayed together for twenty years, from 1976 to 1996, and have been a major influence on a vast array of musicians, from Morrissey to the Scissor Sisters. Much of the reason for that is Siouxsie Sioux herself, whose art punk style and vocals have made her one of the most iconic frontwomen in all of rock. Here she is gazing at you with her scorpion eyes:

R.I.P. Lou Reed

To honor the passing of the great Lou Reed, Sunday's post is pre-empted by a re-posting of a song of his used last year called "Halloween Parade." He was something, to be sure, and will be greatly missed.

Hot metal and methadrine.

Who's got two thumbs and is using them to paint her nails black tonight and put on cat eye make-up? This girl! Yes, it's back to the old good ol' goth days for me this weekend, so it's fitting that today's song was written for one of the founding ladies of goth, bassist Patricia Morrison.

Morrison was in several punk and goth bands in the 70s and 80s, and joined The Sisters of Mercy in the mid-80s. The band's singer and songwriter, Andrew Eldritch, said he thought of her as a Lucrezia Borgia-type person, so he wrote "Lucretia, My Reflection" with her in mind. The song concerns a society's downfall and contains a repeated entreaty from Eldritch for Lucretia to dance the ghost with him. 

The Sisters of Mercy formed in the late 70s and were part of the first wave of goth. Although none of the original members remain besides Eldritch, he continues to tour under The Sisters of Mercy name. They were always a bit more rock-n-roll than many other early goth bands, and "Lucretia, My Reflection," with its dystopian lyrics and mechanical beat, became a big influence on industrial music that followed. Patricia Morrison wanders through an urban wasteland in the song's video. With its grinding machinery and her Victorian goth style, it's almost a steampunk how-to.

The bats have left the bell tower.

American Goths

Remember when they didn't sell fangs and red contacts at the mall, and you actually had to put forth quite a bit of effort if you wanted to look undead? Back in my day, we painted our fingernails black with Sharpies, drove an hour to find a store that sold fishnet stockings, and tattooed ourselves with a sewing needle and India ink... and we liked it! Kids these days sure have it easy, with their Hot Topics and their Nightmare Before Christmas backpacks and their Kiss of Death lipstick...

Ok, enough fuddy-gothiness, but it is the last weekend before Halloween, so what better way to celebrate our impending doom than with three days of classic goth songs? First up is the band that started it all, with the song that started it all--"Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus. 

Bauhaus formed in England in 1978, and their sound picked up the jagged pieces punk had left behind and added a hefty dose of gloom to them. Their slowed-down tempos, ominous synthesizers, and doleful lyrics set the mold for dozens of bands that followed their footsteps in the years after their 1983 break-up. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" was the band's first single, released in 1979, and is not only considered to be the first goth record ever released, but is still goth's greatest anthem. Raise your devil horns in salute \m/ \m/!!!

Monsters invade Bakersfield!

While monsters are not allowed to Mash on this blog, they are allowed (and encouraged!) to celebrate their very own holiday in other ways, such as breathing down Buck Owens' neck and putting him on the run.

Owens released "Monsters' Holiday" in 1974 and it ended up becoming one of his last big solo hits. After his longtime guitarist Don Rich died in a July 1974 motorcycle accident, Owens began to relinquish creative control to producers. As a result, his music began to sound more like country-pop than his hard-edged Bakersfield sound, which was originally a reaction against over-produced Nashville records. 

"Monster's Holiday" still rocks with Owens' signature Bakersfield style, though: electric and stripped-down with a big drum beat. These monsters are hardcore honky-tonkin' Californians, through and through! In case of confusion, this "Monsters' Holiday" is not the same-named 1962 Christmas follow-up to "The Monster Mash" by Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crypt Kickers. These monsters aren't decorating a tree or making a wishlist, they're on a West Coast rampage!