Audio

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen)

TRACK #329: 

It’s Halloween (Stop Look and Listen) by Pete Antell

Since everyone’s all Myersed-up right now from Halloween Ends and Fallacy and since over here (a year behind) we’re still yakin’ about Halloween Kills, we thought it’d be a perfect time to drop this addition.

One of the few moments of genuine interest I experienced while watching Halloween Kills last year was the introduction of Big John. A curious tune began to play during the establishing shots of the Myers house. A tune I was unfamiliar with. Even as it played, I couldn’t quite tell if it was a bonafide Halloween oldie I had just never heard before or some new song made to sound old.

I stayed through the whole credits of that dumb movie just to find out the name of that song.

Turns out it was It’s Halloween (Stop Look, and Listen) by Pete Antell, and the answer to that question, evidently, is somewhere right in the middle.

The song was apparently written by musician and band leader Raymond “Dutch” Wolff way back in 1952. According to his daughter, Melora (who provides several bits of interesting history via the YouTube listing where this song debuted) it was a tune he used to sing to the children when they were all young.

However, the song was never actually recorded. At least it hadn’t been until Wolff’s friend, a musician/singer/songwriter and producer named Pete Antell urged him to lay down the track.

So, they all set about recording it, getting the old band back together as it were, with Pete on vocals and Ray himself firing up the sax. They then released the track in 2012 on YouTube, where it stayed, mostly under the radar, for almost 10 years until it magically appeared in David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills.

Then, it blew up. Thousands upon thousands of views and hundreds upon hundreds of comments demanding the song be released later, Pete and company dropped a digital single onto streaming platforms within a couple of weeks.

Curiously though, they changed the name of the song to Stop Look and Listen, It’s Halloween for its official release. I’m not sure why exactly, and I rather prefer it’s original title, but hey, it’s their tune.

Pete is kind enough to pop into his own YouTube comments thread at times, but most of his responses are terse and lack elaboration. Trust me, I read through all 800 and whatever of them just to try to dig up information on this track.

And though I’m sure you’re aware, I’d just like to say here, a YouTube comments section is an awful place to spend any amount of time.

Pro-tip for young YouTubers reading: no one gives a shit why you’re there watching a video, or even that you are. Please refrain from wasting peoples time and bandwidth with the unnecessary and tiresome “Here cause of Halloween Kills.” Yeah, no shit.

Oh, and I’d like to double that sentiment for the even more annoying “POV” prefaced “no one was watching this video until Halloween Kills.” Again, no shit, jackass. And that includes you, nimrod. Just watch the video, thumb it up and move the fuck along. Yikes.

My apologies. I just felt particularly stupefied after wading through that insipid thread for nuggets of information that were few and far between. Back to the tune!

So, though it was recorded only 10 years ago, this number has all the Hallmarks of a jazzy tune written in 1952. It’s a little piece of nostalgia that taps right into the heart of an old time Halloween, cause that’s where it originated. And I doubt I’m in the minority when I say that this, not even this scene, but exclusively this song, is the best thing Halloween Kills has to offer.

So we’ve peppered it with some H43 samples and used the original title here, as it is listed in the film, cause old or not, you got a bonafide inclusive Halloween track on your hands now.

Lead in by hometown hero Willy the Kid, on WURG, Haddonfield’s home for rock, which makes a sneeze and you’d miss it appearance there in Kills. You can expect to hear a little more Willy next year, cause you know there’s nothing we like more around here than Horror movie DJs. And Halloween Ends put Willie right in the drivers seat, as he opened up that whole shitshow with the Halloween monster party playlist staple and Shindig bullpenner Midnight Monster Hop by Jack and Jim. Which, true to the precedent set by its predecessor, is the single best part of that whole movie.

We got kind of a Halloween thing happening here right now, so we’ll just have to leave that ditty in the pen for one more year.

Until then, stop look and listen…it’s almost Halloween!

 

Audio

Deck My Balls: Seasons Beatings from the Krypt Keeper 5

As any of you who’ve listened to A Very Shindig Christmas are well aware, Shindig Radio personality Mikey Rotella cut a Christmas record back in Monessen, PA.

He and 3 other FX kids came together to form The Krypt Keeper 5, and they gave that toothless town something to smile about in the Winter of 2005.

A mixture of gorified Christmas standards and horrific originals, Deck My Balls: Seasons Beatings from the Krypt Keeper 5 stands as raw and singular testament to how shitty and boring it is in Monessen Pennsylvania, and just what kind of creativity that can stir in a bunch of isolated youths.

So pick up a couple cases of Iron City, fry up some chipped ham and grab your balls for the beating of the season.

 

Audio

Hardrock Halloween

TRACK #280:

Hardrock Halloween by Acid Witch

We began our season with Acid Witch, so it’s seems only appropriate that all this high octane motor-metal now culminates in a Halloween Song from none other than Motorcity’s own Lords of Halloween.

It’s a full-throttled driving tune detailing one ill-fated night for several youths in Detroit. A Halloween night, as it happens, back in 1988. There, the paths of a few mischief causing trick-or-treaters collided with the Black Trans-Am of some hard rocking teens leaving Harpo’s, all laced up on LSD and looking for kicks.

It doesn’t end well for anyone on this hallowed eve. For on this night, they will find, the chill of death walks behind…

…in a twisted tale of All Hallo’s havoc Acid Witch calls…

Hardrock Halloween.

 

Thank you all for joining us this year. 2020 has been a strange one we hope that having the playlist to bump in October has made it feel a bit more like old Halloween times.

Watch out for more mini-playlists and videos throughout the year, keep the Creep Phone on speed dial and stay tuned for new episodes of Shindig Radio!

From all of us at Halloween Shindig, we hope you all have a very Happy, and a very weird, Halloween.

Audio

Halloween, The Night HE Came Home

TRACK #260:

Halloween, The Night HE Came Home by Fondlecorpse

The Great Coron-Out of 2020 put a lot of different shit on hold. Traveling, going to school, supporting local businesses, licking the palms of total strangers, weddings, feeling healthy, casually coughing in public, playing professional sports, trusting your fellow man, trusting authority, making movies, going to see movies, hell, just fucking hanging out with friends, all put on ice until further notice.

Unsurprisingly then, this heighten cautious state also put the brakes on independent bands that were trying to shoot music videos.

So this past summer, when faced with just such a dilemma, the latex mask guru’s at Nightmare Force and the Dutch Death Dealers Fondlecorpse approached Halloween Shindig in hopes of producing a quarantine team-up to battle back the blockade.

The result was the video below; a visual barrage of over 40 years worth of Satanic Panic set to the soothing sounds of shredding and screaming: The Nightmare Force.

But that’s not the only thing Fondlecorpse has to say on the matter of melting faces.

Not by a long shot. Ya see, Fondlecorpse has been peeling off VHS Metal for almost 20 years now. And with albums like Creaturegore and Set the Drill to Kill, I wish I’d known about them sooner, because these guys could have been Shindiggin’ for years already.

And with songs like Krite Attack!, Choppingmall and Terrorvision, we wouldn’t have had to stretch even one inch to make room for them on the roster. Hell, they’ve got All-Star status just waiting for them in the rafters.

But strictly referential tracks won’t be necessary to include Rotterdam’s finest. Not in the slightest. At least not for their rookie at-bat, anyway. And that’s because Fondlecorpse took the main artery straight to the heart of this thing here with their 2007 full length release, Blood and Popcorn.

Featured on that album is, you guessed it, a straight up Halloween song. A Halloween song about Halloween ‘78, no less. And damn it if that’s not a sure-fire way to get webbed up in this Samhain soirée.

Loomis, Laurie, Smith’s Grove, Jack-O-Lanterns, and Trick-Or-Treating are all boxes getting ticked off here. Hell, even Samhain, the lord of the dead, gets a shout out from Sly, if you can actually make out what the fuck he’s saying anyway. I mean, this is Death Metal after all.

You can find more songs, CD’s, and merch at the Fondlecorpse Bandcamp, or you can follow them where ever you get shit beamed directly into your corneas: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

This quarantine saw Halloween Shindig joining forces with Fondlecorpse. Now, Halloween draws the circle closed, as Fondlecorpse joins the hallowed ranks of Halloween Shindig.

Welcome aboard fellas. Your brothers in Halloween Heavy Metal welcome you.

 

Audio

It’s Halloween Night (The Witches’ Jack-O-Lantern)

TRACK #241:

It’s Halloween Night (The Witches’ Jack-O-Lantern) by Acid Witch

Welcome back Weeners! Thanks for joining us. Here’s to a new season on Halloween Shindig. We hope you all enjoy all the new tunes we have lined up for you this year.

Last year, recording and editing Shindig Radio kept me on my heels once the season for songs rolled around. So this year, I decided to get a little head start.

But then, California decided making fake rubber bullshit for crummy new movies that you’ll never see popping up on this website, wasn’t an “essential” service during a global pandemic. Go fig.

Needless to say, I had a bit of extra time on my hands. So this year, we’re starting things just a little bit early (and on the first day of Fall even!) as we’ve got 40 new Title Tracks, Monster Raps, and Halloween Scats to fill your Autumnal airwaves.

Leading us off this year, as promised, is a group of Shindig All-Stars that dropped a brand new Halloween Song just as I was finishing up last year’s countdown. C’mon, it was a wrap! But along came Acid Witch making me wish I had lagged just a little bit longer.

No matter! They’re here now to start the season off right, with another sludgy ode to the Eve of All Saints. This time around, they’re detailing the necessary steps for a Witch to turn a dude’s head into a Jack-O-Lantern…on Halloween Night, no less.

All right, fella. Sold.

This song is tough as shit and an instant inclusion. We hope you like it too, cause there’s more Acid Witch on the way, as we’ve yet to tap into their 2017 release Evil Sound Screamers, which is practically a Halloween Album unto itself. But until then…

Black Cats and Witches

Bonfires burn bright

Ghosts and Ghouls they gather

It’s Halloween Night!

 

Audio

Without Warning

TRACK #230:

Without Warning  by The Ghastly Ones

It has come to our attention that the previously slotted song, for reasons that will hopefully become clear to Shindig fans soon enough, does not deserve a place at this table.

The short version is that Captain Clegg and his Night Creatures are apparently villainous (possibly even fictitious!) scoundrels, ungraciously aping the vibe and appearance of Shindig All-Stars, The Ghastly Ones. And an affront to The Ghastly Ones is an affront to this playlist.

Despite its Halloweeniness, and its appearance in a Halloween film (albeit Rob Zombie’s unfortunate Halloween II) we can no longer, in good conscience, continue to host it on this playlist.

And I’m quite sure they’ll be terribly upset, too. Who am I kidding right now with all this official business? No one sees this blog or reads any of my nonsense, least of all the bands that are featured here within.

Unless that band is The Ghastly Ones.

So while, Captain Clegg may never be aware that this playlist is here, or that he was ever here, or that he was then removed – Norman, Garret, Kevin and Dave may very well. And as far as we’re concerned, they’re the only Ones that matter.

So, we now interrupt your regularly scheduled Halloween song…Without Warning!

 

Audio

October 31st

TRACK #209:

October 31st by Acid Witch

For 2018’s 3rd belated official-induction of a Shindig All-Star, direct from Motor-City, it’s Halloween Metallers Acid Witch. They’re coming correct with the calendar date on which this whole holiday has always taken place.

Posting this song on any other day seemed, well, it seemed pretty stupid. So, we’re kicking off a heavy metal Halloween double-header with this tune, sure to make your Halloween a little more rockin’.

We’ve led it in with a sample from Halloween 2, where Loomis explains the meaning of that strange word they just found graffitied on the school chalk board to Haddonfield’s finest.

Of course, Donald Pleasence pronounces “Samhain” phonetically, but we can forgive him that transgression because, as always, he just sells the fuck out of this dialogue.

Happy….October 31st.

 

Audio

Lep In The Hood

TRACK #203:

Lep In The Hood by Warwick Davis

When it comes to Monster Raps, I’m a huge fan. A legitimate fan. I legitimately like these songs.

That’s not to say I don’t see why they’re ridiculous. But I like them. I bump them in my car. In a lot of cases, they’re actually good songs.

I can not say the same for this particular Monster Rap.

Don’t get me wrong, I love The Leprechaun. I love Warwick Davis. I have the box set. Vegas is awesome. Space is fun as well. Leprechaun in the Hood is a particular joy, and even Back 2 the Hood has its moments. But Lep In The Hood is not a good song.

I enjoy it. I love that it exists. It’s hands-down playlist material, but it’s a bad song, to be sure.

It could have been good too; with a better beat, some more inspired lyrics and a little more commitment than the halfassery on display here, this could have been a great Monster Rap.

But I’m not one to stare a gift horse in the mouth, and any Warwick Davis rapping as the Leprechaun is better than no Warwick Davis rapping as the Leprechaun, so hats off to the producers on that account.

Thank you for giving this to the World, even if the World doesn’t really appreciate it.

 

Audio

Haunted Cathouse

TRACK #147

Haunted Cathouse by The Nekromantix


What Haunted House tour would be complete without a stop at a haunted whorehouse?

Here’s a psychobilly banger from The Nekromantix which has the guys reminiscing about the good old days, ya know when they got free blowjobs from weird creatures at this spooky brothel.

I lead the song in with a clip from Blood Sisters, Roberta Findlay’s late-era slasher where some sorority sisters are challenged to spend the night in…a haunted whorehouse!

With Roberta’s name and the plot outlined above, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were getting into some top-notch 80’s slash-sleazery. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken, and probably fairly disappointed by this scavenger hunt, genre mash-up which delivers little in either haunted house chills or hack-n-slash thrills.

It’s not even terribly sleazy either, which is a pretty hefty sin for a movie about a haunted whorehouse where a bunch of sorority girls are having a sleep-over.

Oh, well. At any rate, here’s The Nekromantix describing a house which would have been much cooler than the one we get to see in Blood Sisters.

 

Audio

Terror (In the Haunted House)

TRACK #146:

Terror (in the Haunted House) by Blitzkid

Though they share titles, I’m not entirely convinced Blitzkid was inspired by the film Terror in the Haunted House to write this upbeat spookster.

See, Terror in the Haunted House doesn’t really take place in a Haunted House. I suppose House on Haunted Hill doesn’t really either, but it at least it pretends to. Terror in the Haunted House doesn’t even do that.

What it does do however, is attempt to bug you out with a bunch of subliminal messages and images cut into the movie. They called this gimmick “Psycho-Rama!” which sounds way cooler than it actually is.

The look of these messages is pretty goofy. They’re actually kind of distracting and not at all effective. Take a look. I’ve slowed them down for optimum perception!

Not so spooky. Hell, the later ones seem pretty aftermarket. Particularly this red snake one, instructing you to “Rent Rhino Videos Everyday.”

Yeah, pretty sure prints didn’t ship with that message in 1958.

No, Terror in the Haunted House is more like a psychological thriller than a horror, and not an entirely ineffective one at that. A bit silly sure and no doubt more than just a little Castle-esque, but it is occasionally somewhat sinister and intriguing.

Mostly though, it’s just a snoozer. And with the absence of any fun ghosts or phantasmic goings-ons, 100% missable.

So, let’s just enjoy this spooky spin from Shindig All-Stars Blitzkid. It’s shorter and a lot more fun.