Month: October 2015

Audio

Pet Sematary

TRACK #112: 

Pet Semetary by The Ramones

The Ramones (b) + Horror Title Track (htt) = Shinding Gold (sg).

And I don’t care what hardcore Ramones fans thought or what The Golden Raspberry Committee had to say on the matter, my equation is airtight.

And just like any good equation you could substitute a lot of bands for that b variable and still get the same value or greater.

Dokken? Check.

45 Grave? Check Plus.

J Geils Band? Double Plus Good.

It’s math. It just works. Numbers don’t lie. And when Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny and Marky set their sights on Stephen King, the result was a horror hit for the ages. Haters be damned!

Stephen King likes to name drop songs in his novels, particularly Ramones songs and Pet Sematary is no different, as Blitzkreg Bop plays heavily into the story.

I believe the story goes that the boys were approached by the producers for the inclusion of Sheena Is A Punk Rocker in the movie. Such fans of the novel were they that The Ramones simply offered to cut an original track just for the film. And not only that, but a Title Track to boot. Don’t know where I heard that, can’t confirm it but it’s in my head and why would I just make that up? Gotta be at least a partly true, right?

It’s one of the greatest Horror Title Tracks of all time performed by one of the greatest Rock ‘N Roll bands ever. The simplicity and raw power of The Ramones lends itself to perhaps the most cartoonishly straight forward song to ever accompany a horror film, or maybe any film for that matter. Though, there is Hard Ticket To Hawaii and The Stabilizer and thems some ridiculous ass Title Tracks.

So blow a raspberry at those Golden Raspberry farts and follow Victor to the sacred place.

 

Audio

The Surfin’ Dead

TRACK #111:

The Surfin Dead by The Cramps

So what do hot rods, racing, surfing and zombies all have in common?

Beats the hell outta me but they all come together in one helluva hammer droppin’, high-rev haulin’, outta sight asphalt eater from Ohio creepsters and Shindig All-Stars The Cramps.

Perhaps their most gracious addition to horror-rockdom, The Surfin’ Dead is prominently featured in Dan O’Bannon’s awesome 80’s zombie send-up The Return of The Living Dead.

While no slouch in the soundtrack department, I have to admit this is easily my favorite track off the album, no question. But I love me some Cramps so maybe I’m just a tad bit biased. Or maybe it’s just a great song.

Either way, it belongs on a Halloween playlist. Even a short one.

And just for good measure, Lux tosses in 2 shout outs to Cleveland’s pride and Cramps hoedad, Ghoulardi.

Cause your A-bone’s busted and you’re through the door, so do the dead

 

Halloween ’15

The Shindig has been pretty inactive this past year, which is a disappointment to me and the no one that actually follows this blog.
But it’s now offically October and while I never meant for this to only be a seasonally active blog, it’s high time to get the lead out.

So here comes some new tunes for the playlist. There’s a ton prepped and ready to go and scheduled for daily release, that way ya’ll can have a nice, daily dose of Halloween. I’d like to say over 30 but I can’t make any promises.
Additionally, The Shindig hopes to also have time to debut an all new for 2015 feature we hope will be a hit.

So grab a pumpkin and sit down, it’s about to get spooky around here.