Last week, in my continuing efforts to make Halloween parties not suck, we discussed the descendants of Screamin' Jay Hawkins like John Fogerty, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, the undead calypso of Rockapella and downright creepy music written by immensely popular creepy bands. Here are some suggestions for this week.
Rasputina: \Transylvanian Concubine""
Every day is Halloween for this group of corset-wearing, cello playing gothic-rockers. ""Transylvanian Concubine"" was the track that first got them noticed. Melodic, chipper and subtly bloodthirsty this song finds its way into most mixes I make, Halloween and otherwise.
Nick Cave: ""There is a Light,"" ""Do You Love Me?"" and (featuring Anita Lane ) ""Bedazzled""
While always sticking to dark, jazz influenced music, Nick Cave's music has run the gamut of different varieties of gallows music. Some songs are cartoonishly violent, others psychologically terrifying. ""There is a Light"" is a truly great song which was tragically buried in a soundtrack, ""Bedazzled"" is an unsettling ballad appropriated the Dudley Moore movie of the same name, and ""Do You Love Me?"" is a genuinely sinister sounding track. Nick Cave may well be the king of Halloween. The least you could do is play him at your party.
Death in Vegas (featuring Iggy Pop): ""Aisha""
Monster Magnet: ""Goliath and the Vampires""
Both ""Aisha"" and ""Goliath and the Vampires"" play as though they were studies in how to create anxious sounding music. Death in Vegas does so using a song by never allowing its notes to be fully gratifying, always leaving the listener hanging off Iggy Pop's sloshing voice. Monster Magnet's track is a full-out drone, with successive layers of sound creating ever increasing tension. ""Goliath and the Vampires"" builds into a genuinely creepy song.
Self: ""KIDdies""
Most of Self's music has been in the heavily layered and highly complicated genre math-rock, and as such has been largely inaccessible to people who wouldn't otherwise know what math rock means. ""KIDdies,"" however, is a straight-forward alternative song taking teenagers on, head to head, laughing and blaming the rise of Marilyn Manson on our Ritalin culture in a catchy, albeit dark song. Written to remind the listener of modern goth-rock but squarely written as alternative, and with the chorus inviting everyone to ""go trick or treating dressed up like Marilyn Manson,"" ""KIDdies"" fits in with any Halloween music mix and will give a chuckle to party-goers listening closely.
Los Straitjackets: ""Rockula,"" ""The Munsters Theme Song"" and ""Tarantula""
The Bomboras: ""A Fistful of Terror"" and ""Return of the Death Ray""
The Amazing Royal Crowns: ""Do the Devil""
When surf-revival bands began growing in popularity after the Pulp Fiction soundtrack exposed teenagers to Dick Dale for the first time, much of its popularity grew from a sense of irony that listeners found in the genre. While its artists are among the most talented guitar players in the music industry (Dick Dale plays so quickly he melts up to 10 guitar picks in the course of a concert), surf groups have also needed to resort to gimmicks to keep the irony up. Dark-sounding surf music is just one of these gimmicks, and any one of these songs demonstrates how rewarding it is to hear a song sound evil while evoking the thought of catching a wave at the same time. Mix up the pace with some of the tracks listed above, but don't miss out on the fantastic Los Straitjackets cover of the Munsters theme-song.
