Congrats to Tom and Glenn/Theme for Nov

First, I wanted to congratulate Tom Waits and the Misfits for showing up on the most Halloween mixes. Actually, Misfits may have won since they were on the same number as Mr. Waits and ALSO had a cover version. Anyway.

+ = Halloween-4-eva

Anyway, the theme for next month. You've all been eagerly awaiting it. And it is:

Music for everyone!!

With all the family togetherness stuff coming up, it'd probably be good to have a couple of mixes on-hand that can be enjoyed by everyone. Your mission is to make a really good mix that is as inclusive of all tastes as possible. Get to it!

Here is what it will look like when everyone is together enjoying your mix:

Fucking creepy, right?

Let's Get Uncomfortable

Happy Halloween, everyone. For this mix I tried to go for the unsettling tracks--songs that sound and/or make you feel a bit seasick and uneasy.

We start off with two neofolk tracks to set the mood as I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds neofolk pretty damn creepy. The Savage Republic track is great (that drumming you hear? Dude is playing an oil drum), The Wake track is the poppiest this mix gets, and the Chokebore song is the best example of the queasy sound/tone this mix was going for. Then we have an ultra-heavy Nadja cover of Elliott Smith's "Needle In The Hay," Pain Teens' "Brown Jenkin" (what a nightmare would sound like--those are baby screams), some soul-crushing instrumental pieces, and we end with a GORGEOUS track centered on a conversation about skullfucking. Yes. Please enjoy.

01. Current 93 - All The Pretty Little Horsies
02. Death In June - My Little Black Angel
03. Savage Republic - Next To Nothing
04. Bloody Mannequin Orchestra - The Blender
05. The Del-Byzanteens - My Hands Are Yellow (From The Job That I Do)
06. Igor Wakhevitch - Rituel de Guerre des Esprits de la Terre
07. The Wake - Judas
08. Chokebore - Days Of Nothing
09. TwinSisterMoon - The Vampire Of Suburbia
10. Nadja - Needle In The Hay (Elliott Smith cover)
11. Pain Teens - Brown Jenkin
12. Swans - We'll Hang For That
13. Natural Snow Buildings - If I Can Find My Way Through The Darkness
14. Hungry Ghosts - Nothing Has To Happen
15. Rudi Arapahoe - Conversation Piece

DOWNLOAD HERE

Image is from Makahisa Fukase's The Solitude of Ravens. Read about him if you get a chance.

Music for Zombies, Ghosts, and Monsters

Alright, here's my mix. I was so very tempted to add the Indian Thriller, but I spared you all. It starts off softish then gets punkish, then just goes to all hell at the end (with a really creepy song).

01. Tori Amos - 97 Bonnie & Clyde
02. Devics - Nothing Hurts
03. Three Mile Pilot - City Of Bones
04. cat power - Cross Bones Style
05. Hello Saferide - The best night of your life
06. The Door-Keys - Ole Hallerd's Eve
07. Lemuria - Keep Quiet
08. Tegan And Sara - Walking With A Ghost
09. The Max Levine Ensemble - Ghost Song
10. Etiquette - Bellevue
11. Ghost Mice - Cemetaries
12. Antsy Pants - Vampire
13. The Besties - Zombie Song
14. Operation: Cliff Clavin - Astro Zombie
15. Zombina & the Skeletones - Nobody Likes You
16. Violent Scene From A Film - My Favorite Slasher Movie
17. Please inform the captain this is a hijack - Transnational Vampire Killers
18. The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower - casket salesman
19. Spare Change - Liafure
20. Los Gatos Negros - Kill this monster
21. Punkin Pie - I know Monsters well
22. Circle Takes the Square - Interview At The Ruins

Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9PXV12BK

Two DAMN Good Mixes! And Hot Extras!

It took me a while to get on the trolley.

On top of homework and sheer laziness, I had roughly 150 songs to choose from. For someone who's frightened of absolutely everything, I've collected a surprising amount of scary/spooky songs.

So, I made two mixes...


"DAMN good Halloween songs" -- Dale Cooper approved!
(I've been watching a lot of Twin Peaks lately.)

Tracklist:

1. Planet Claire - The B-52s
Slowly creeps up on you, then blasts off with a sci-fi dance party.
2. Treeless Island Peopled by Birds - Bird Names
3. Wicked Annabella - The Kinks
4. I Ain't Superstitious - Howlin' Wolf
I was going to include a spooky Doors songs or two (and they have a handful, let me tell you) -- but why not just include the guy that they cribbed from? Good dirty blues, with a smack of Robert Johnson.
5. Gouge Away - The Pixies
6. Teenage Witch - Eels
7. Third Uncle - Brian Eno
8. 4 Better or 4 Worse - The Pharcyde
Fatlip gets really freaky in the bridge. Watch out for it.
9. I Only Have Eyes For You - The Flamingos
My friend Donovan and I were recently discussing how eerie 50s songs can be. This one is particularly ghostlike, even menacing; from the echoey "shoo bop shoo wop" to the creepy harmonies in the chorus.
10. E. Knievel Interlude (The Perils of Keeping it Real) - Grandaddy
The ticking clock reminds us that the scariest thing is our finite mortality...!
11. The Ghost and the Eyes - Thanksgiving
12. Appel Direct - Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli
Django's charging strumming/plucking here is meant to sound like a train. To me, it sounds like a ghost train.
13. Superstition - Blanche
Lilting Louisiana voodoo country.
14. Graveyard Orbit - Crystal Stilts
15. I Hear You Knocking - Dave Edwards
Ooooh...who's knocking at the door? Don't let them in...oooOOOooOOoo.
16. The Oogum Boogum Song - Brenton Wood
Sweet spooky soul.
17. You'll Pay For Your Day at Pleasure Island - Michael Leviton
A little ukelele song; half-sorrow, half-menace. Always reminds me of that disturbing scene in Pinocchio, when all those little boys started turning into donkeys.
18. The Sinking Ship Song - Matt Elliot
Appropriately, sounds like a ship full of sinking souls.
19. The Ballad of No-Face - Final Fantasy
As creepy as the title sounds.
20. Full Moon - Eden Ahbez
Quiet, calm, almost spoken word from the 60s, with a nighttime backdrop.
21. The Ghost Sonata - Tuxedomoon
And the album almost ends with a hush. Until:
22. Laisse Tombeur Les Filles - France Gall
This once-cheery song now always reminds me of the credits to "Deathproof." Oh, Quentin Tarantino.

Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UJJWQ6YC

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AND:


Halloween Surf 'n' Turf! Featuring a lot of surf songs, and a few songs that were too cute for the other mix, and yet, too cute to leave out altogether. When I say "cute," I mean like, 60s camp, and pop-punk satirical songs.

Tracklist:
1. Phantasma Del Mar - The Aquabats
2. Take Off Or Die! - The Tormentos
3. Out of Limits - The Ventures
4. The Cruel Sea - The Beat Tornados
5. Nite Prowler - The Deuce Coupes
6. Night Scene - The Rumblers
7. Flesh Hammer - Hillbilly Frankenstein
8. Shadow Land - The Falcons
9. Jack the Ripper (Parts 1 & 2) - Southern Culture on the Skids
10. Horror Beach - Horrorpops
11. Surfin' Bird - The Cramps
12. Cat With Two Heads - The Aquabats
13. Spider Cider - Man Man
14. Slaughter on 10th Ave - The Ventures
15. Letter From Jeepers - Mr. Guy
16. Fashion Zombies - The Aquabats
17. Boo! - Supernova
18. Straight to Hell - Chum
19. The Gonk (Theme from Dawn of the Dead)
20. Coolest Little Monster - Zacherley

Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GIMXX23O


AND, as far as actual albums go, there are two supremely underappreciated albums which you should purchase if you're looking for overall spooky bands:


"A-Haunting We Will Go-Go" The Ghastly Ones
Supreme 60s-style camp. Like the Haunted Mansion music...but way cooler.


"Wreckin' Crew" The Meteors
The kings of psychobilly. This album includes such Halloween treats as "Zombie Noise," "Mutant Rock" and "Fear of the Dark."



PS: Honorable mention goes to this 10 minute string quintet, because I feel like it could be played at a ghost ball, and it would be the best ghost ball ever.

Astor Piazzola - Concierto Para Quinteto

Music To Spook By

I tried to make a mix full of equal parts goofy fun and appropriate creepiness. Some of these were chosen based on the names (having the word "ghost" in the title helps), some just sounded dark and rather menacing, eg. Swans' "I Am The Sun". Hope you enjoy 'em!

1) Transylvanian Concubine - Rasputina

2) Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts - Wolf Parade

3) I Am The Sun - Swans (every Halloween mix should include this band)

4) Cemetary Polks - Tom Waits (obligatory Tom Waits song...but an appropriate one)

5) Zombie - The Death Set

6) Tori Amos - Raining Blood (creepier than the original, I dare say)

7) Dracula's Wedding - Outkast ( I wanted to put in a hip-hop track. This was as close as I got. Vampires are popular, right?)

8) Dead Souls - Joy Division (obvious choice, but whatever!)

9) Meet Ze Monsta - PJ Harvey

10) Lullaby - The Cure (Robert Smith gets eaten by a SPIDER!)

11) Phantom - Justice

12) Zombie Boy - The Magnetic Fields

13) Strange Days - the Doors

14) Werewolf - Cat Power

15) Slide - The Dresden Dolls (I chose this one for the creepiness factor. Who IS the orange man? I don't know!)

16) Help Me I Am In Hell - Nine Inch Nails

17) Burn The Witch - Queens of the Stone Age

Last call for scary mixes!

Dudes. This is the last week to post your Halloween mixes. Egads!

But fear not, there will be other chances to make mixes. I'll post the next theme on Saturday so you have a full month to get 'em done. And, you're always welcome to suggest mix themes. I got a bunch thought up, but your idea may be better than all of them, so...

SCARY BONES

13 TERRORFUL (terrible?) tracks to FRIGHT and DELIGHT. Fully expect to love one song, but hate the next. And if you happen to enjoy the entire mix, then congrats.. our tastes in music are equally bipolar!! (... although I did try to make this flow as cohesively as possible.)

01. BONDE DO ROLE - Danca do Zombi
02. ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD - Bad, Bad Things
03. PINBACK - Boo (samples from the orig. radio broadcast of 'the war of the worlds')
04. ISLANDS - Creeper
05. SSION - Fear Us (if you think this song is weird, check out a pic of the singer - creepy!)
06. SIFL & OLLY - Fake Blood
07. ADAM FREELAND - We Want Your Soul
08. THE MISFITS - Last Caress (what would a halloween mix be without a misfits classic?)
09. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER - Ghost Song (3 Words: Ghost Baby's Daddy !!!!!)
10. BLITZEN TRAPPER - Black River Killer
11. CLOUD CULT - Car Crash
12. RIS PAUL RIC - Daft Young Cannibals
13. THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION - Blue Water, Black Heart

**BONUS TRACK**

14. CKE - Burger Slayer (ohh, this is just silly.)

DOWNLOAD: SCARY BONES HALLOWEEN MIX