The Catskill Chronicle

By Jason Dole

Happy Halloween, Evvabody! Yes, it’s Halloween, so that means every ghoul with a music blog is cranking out Halloween Playlists. Mine is a little bit different, however, inasmuch as ninety percent of the songs must be in some way Halloweenish. Too many lists out there just have songs with a creepy word in the title. Hell, an iPod can come up with a playlist like that all on its own. I want rock songs selected by living and/or undead people who know the meaning of both fear and humor. That’s Halloween!

Also, this is not a conceptual playlist. It’s a real set-list from a real radio show, The Second Annual Creepfest from Telepathic Radio. I deejayed all of these songs in the following order at WJFF FM on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. You can click here to visit WJFF’s website and hear the archived edition.

The Creepfest is full of fun, Halloween, and rock-n-roll. Although I have my favorite must-play tracks, I do try to mix it up from year to year. So, there’s a lot here you know, some stuff you don’t know, but there are a lot of “big” Halloween rock songs that are MIA. (…Like “Pet Cemetery” by the Ramones, the “Monster Mash,” or anything by the Misfits. Sorry, maybe next Creepfest…)

Anyway, here’s the Creepfest, all fresh and creepy for your Halloween weekend, 2009.

1. Kid Koala – Tricks ‘n’ Treats – Charlie Brown has no luck Trick or-Treating, but with the help of DJ Kid Koala, he’s unlucky and funky.
2. John Zacherley – Happy Hootenanny – A classic, short Halloween greeting in rhyme. Now 91, Zacherley was an actor who hosted Shock Theatre and Chiller Theatre, those old “Midnight Movie” presentations on TV.
3. Marilyn Manson – This is Halloween – Panic at the Disco has released the latest edition of this great movie musical number, but I prefer Manson’s version for Creepfest. He’s just creepier.
4. NAHPI – “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?” – Short for National Halloween Prevention Initiative, NAHPI is over 30 artists who collaborated for this wild charity track. Artists include Beck, Karen O, Roky Erickson, David Cross and members of Sonic Youth, Arcade Fire, Sloan and more. It was released in Canada four years ago to benefit UNICEF. Find the video and watch it now.
5. David Bowie w/ Nine Inch Nails – Scary Monsters –  This live  bootleg probably dates to the Bowie/NIN shows of the mid 90s.
6. John Zacherley – Happy Halloween Zacherley returns for another Halloween greeting. What a friendly guy! …Friendly but creepy!
7. Rob Zombie w/ Alice Cooper – Feed My Frankenstein – Not a bootleg, this track is available for purchase on A Fistful of Alice (hey, Alice don’t like freeloading downloaders!)
8. Rob Zombie – Halloween (She Get so Mean) – An out an out Hellbilly-style Halloween rocker, this fun number is one of many tracks on this playlist available on Geffen Records 1998 release Halloween Hootenanny. (The others are tracks 2, 6
9. Rasputina & Marilyn Manson – Transylvanian Concubine – Both the original cello-infused version of this song and Manson’s remix are available on the 1997 EP Transylvanian Regurgitations. The original is better, but Marilyn Manson sounded better coming out of Rob Zombie. On the Creepfest archive, you can hear I played a bit of both.
10. The Who – Boris the Spider – Another reason to love the late John “The Ox” Entwistle, this is the first Who song I remember listening to. It’s one of those creepy, cool, primitive rock songs that sound much older then they are. You know, like “Louie, Louie” “Keep on Dancing” or “96 Tears.” Songs like this lay under the earth for millions of years just waiting for record players to be invented.

Set 2 – Monsters & Witches

1. Roky Erickson – Creature with the Atom Brain – Inspired by the 1955 B-movie of the same name, this one’s an absolute Halloween must-have. It gets stuck in my head for weeks whenever I play it. Great chorus, great groove, great guitar. Creepy dialogue seals the deal and tells the story of the titular creature. Hey, this is Roky’s second appearance on the same Creepfest. Go, Roky, go!
2. The Kinks – Wicked Annabella – A sunny slice of late 60s pop genius, The Village Green Preservation Society harbors some odd and creepy moments. This encounter with Annabella is one of them. 
3. Benji Gughes – The Mummy – An instant classic! I don’t know a thing about Benji Hughes, but thanks to him I do know that I shouldn’t get the Mummy drunk. I found this brilliant revelation of a Halloween song on the extensive Indie Halloween Playlists at http://www.indierockcafe.com. 
4. Tegan & Sara – Walking with a Ghost – Perhaps the least Halloween-ish song in the Creepfest, I chose this version over the White Stripes cover. While Jack’s guitars sound more like Halloween, you just can’t beat the original single. Another great groove, with perfect vocals and production.
5. The Amazing RCs – Little Demon – Screaming Jay Hawkins version of Little Demon is a Halloween standard for me, much more so than “I Put a Spell on You.” This year, I went with this cover on the Halloween Hootenanny CD.
6. Gene Moss – Drac the Knife – Dracula does the Kurt Weill classic. A retro Halloween novelty song from the 1996 RCA Screemers compilation.
7. Sifl & Olly – Panda Song – The Pandas are coming! Bet you weren’t expecting that…
8. Gnarls Barkley – Boogie Monster – Another modern day instant Halloween Classic. I love this track any time of the year, but it screams to be played on Halloween. I would have mixed this into “Dracula’s Wedding” by Andre 3000, but I couldn’t find my copy of The Love Below.
9. Sam Gopal – Season of the Witch – There are many covers of this song, but I love Sam Gopal’s. It features Lemmy on bass in a big way. Who is Gopal? He’s a Tabla player who had a psychedelic band in the late 60s. He’s still out there, find him at http://www.samgopal.com/.

Set 3: Satan Said Dance!

1. MC Chris – I Want Candy – This one just got thrown into the dance set. The incessant demand for candy is totally Halloween. The verse about drilling into Hell and demons is icing on the sugar cake. Ow. My teef hurt.
2. Bobby “Boris” Pickett & the Crypt Kickers – Monster Swim –The Monster Mash is a catch Halloween classic, no doubt, but I wanted something different. Thankfully, “Boris” milked the monster cow dry, so there are lots to choose from. This one and the Christmas cut “Monster’s Holiday” are fine, but stay away from the hideous “Werewolf Watusi.” 
3. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance – Into every Creepfest, a little Satan must fall. This year I passed up Beck’s “Satan Gave me a Taco” and Ben Folds’ “Satan is my Master” for this danceable number. Probably the only time I’ve played this band on my radio show. The singer annoys me, so you can hear I it fade out a little too soon. 
4. Friendly Fires – Skeleton Boy – Okay, so this is the least Halloweenish song of the Creepfest. It’s one of my favorite songs of 2009, a great dance track for any party any time of year.

Set 4 – Rockin’ Finale

1. Swingin’ Neckbreakers – No Costume, No Candy – Straight outta Hoboken, this rocking Halloween manifesto from the Neckbreakers sounds like it was written in response to MC Chris’ track. Available on the Hootenanny CD, it can be found on the Neckbreakers’ 1997 Telstar release Kick Your Ass. That disc is worth tracking down for “No Costume,” as well as “Do the Stand,” “The Flop,” and “Pool Hopping.”
2. Wolfmother – Witchcraft –  Again, don’t know how much it has to do with actual witchcraft, but it sure fits in this set.
3. The Mummies – (You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes – I’ve been playing this song for years, ever since I got it on a compilation premium CD from WFMU. The Mummies were a lo-fi garage band who actually played dressed as mummies. They celebrated their 20^th anniversary last year by regrouping for a few west coast shows.
4. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath – …From the album Black Sabbath. This is page one stuff for heavy rock / heavy metal fans. You can hear where Lester Bangs could complain it was a Cream-like “shuck.” At the same time, you can hear how the track rocks and how Ozzy is creepy as hell.
5. Fairport Convention – Tam Lin – This centuries-old ballad comes from the Scottish Border regions. It’s a tale of willful defiance, mystery, love, and faerie magic that climaxes on All Hallow’s Eve. Fairport Convention’s version, as performed for the BBC, is fairly progressive with a wily violin skating over the bass-dominated backing band as they play in an odd time signature. Love it. Learn more about this ancient fairy tale at http://www.tam-lin.org/
6. Alice Cooper – Devil’s Food
7. Alice Cooper – Black Widow – Can’t have Halloween without (more) Alice! The only problem is deciding what to play. To open up the final Alice set, I went with Devil’s Food because it features the brilliant Hallo-weenie Vincent Price, set to full menace. It’s a set up for the next track, Black Widow, both off of 1975’s Welcome to My Nightmare.
8. Alice Cooper – Second Coming
9. Alice Cooper – Ballad of Dwight Fry – I love this twofer from the original Alice Cooper Band’s Love it To Death. So much so, that I play it a little too often on the radio. The first half is brilliant and filled with references to Hell, Christ, and Lucifer. The second half, after a devastatingly beautiful keyboard interlude, descends into utter madness. I could have played “Dead Babies,” or “Cold Ethyl,” or any other of Alice’s gross-out/horror cuts. But If this ain’t Halloween, man, I don’t know what is.

There ya go. Hope yer creeped out!