I noticed there were a lot of vampire songs in the queue, so coming off the heels of From Dusk Till Dawn, why not just drop a block of blood-suckers right here in the 70’s?
By 1990, Concrete Blonde had already been around for some time and utilized on some pretty awesome genre soundtracks (Texas Chainsaw 2, The Hidden), when they released their best selling album Bloodletting.
The title track is a great Shindig addition about New Orleans and vampires with some serious Anne Rice ambiance about it.
Legend has it (read: the Internet) that the song was indeed inspired by the lady herself, or at least her writings, at any rate.
Though inclusive to many different movies and TV shows, none of them really hit the mark. So, we’re gonna lead this fucker in with an appropriate, Big Easy-style sample from Interview With The Vampire, just for good measure.
Before Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez gave the world Grindhouse, they first collaborated on the 1996 mash-up horror flick From Dusk Till Dawn.
Opening the movie most appropriately is this toe-tapper from The Blasters. It not only sets the tone for what is to follow but captures the atmosphere of their western-crime-horror perfectly.
This whole soundtrack is pretty great, for anyone who likes their tunes a little on the tex-mex side, featuring tracks from Tito & Tarantula, ZZ-Top and Stevie Ray Vaughn amongst others.
I won’t assume everyone’s seen this flick, as I don’t catch too much about it on tumblr, it’s almost 20 years old by now and Tarantino and Rodriguez aren’t quite the pop culture icons they were at the time of it’s release.
If you haven’t seen From Dusk Till Dawn, I recommend it to both horror fans and crime fans alike, as the picture starts out as one and becomes the other. Which, while working at several video stores back then, was a complaint I heard a lot from some renters. Renters that apparently didn’t expect the movie to explode into an all out blood-bathed gore-fest in the 3rd act.
Honestly, I think that’s the movie’s greatest strength and I kinda wish more films engaged in this type of genre bending. Characters that finds themselves in horrific situations were leading perfectly non-horrific lives until that point. Why should that lead up always feel like a set-up?
The fact that these characters are allowed to live and breath in a world outside the trappings of a horror film, until they are decidedly in one, is refreshing. It makes them real, believable characters and gives more weight to their reactions to the horrific turn of events.
Add to that a solid script from Tarantino, some first rate action staging from Rodriguez, a great big screen leap from George Clooney, some awesome gore and creature FX from the KNB crew, fun cameos from Tom Savini and Fred Williamson, multiple performances from Cheech Marin, one sexy as all hell Selma Hayek, a bevy of naked vampire strippers and a great soundtrack and you’ve got yourself one hell of a movie. So fun a movie, in fact, that we can forgive Tarantino and Harvey Keitel for their somewhat labored performances.
So grab a bottle of whiskey, some condoms filled with holy water, and maybe a jackhammer tricked out to be the most bad-ass vampire death machine ever, cause its gonna be a dark night.
And remember, psycho’s do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don’t give a fuck how crazy they are.
Once in blue Moon (or maybe 3 times in roughly 230 tracks) a song comes along so awesomely perfect that it defies my categories. It flagrantly rebels all, encompasses, and becomes more. It demands representation and it’s exclusion from any Halloween playlist is a crime against the holiday, so perfectly suited is it.
It’s a +1 to the trinity; it’s from a horror movie, its about the movie, it’s the movie’s fucking Title Track, and against all odd, it’s about Halloween too.
Are you kidding me? Nope. It’s a Referentially Inclusive Halloween Title Track, or a Great Pumpkin. I’d call it the Holy Grail, but there’s a couple of these fuckers on the Shindig.
While Trick Or Treat isn’t the ultimate example of such a song, it does appear before that track, so it gets the lead-in.
That’s not to say it’s any slouch though. Lets look at the stats:
It’s a Title Track, already 3 shots to it.
In that it’s called Trick Or Treat, is played live by an undead rock star in the movie, at a Halloween party, on Halloween, while he’s killing teenagers with a guitar that shoots lightning, is effort enough to earn it’s keep at the top of the heap.
You have a Halloween playlist and it doesn’t feature this song, you’re doing it wrong.
I love Trick Or Treat and it’s definitely an annual watch somewhere between October 1st and 31st.
Metal head dork Eddie Weinbauer accidentally resurrects his recently deceased rock hero Sammi Curr by unwittingly playing his final and unreleased album backwards.
At first Sammi aids Edward in his game of revenge, but when Sammi’s game becomes too real, Eddie pussies out and Sammi takes matters into his own hands. Awesomeness ensues.
The soundtrack, presented in the form of Sammi Curr’s music, is provided by butt-rockers Fastway, whom I’m not sure achieved much notoriety beyond this Soundtrack.
Either way, it all adds up to a pretty fantastic Heavy Metal Halloween. Enjoy!
I love the Rev, so I’ve always appreciated the fact that I could include him on the Shindig, via this made-to-order Halloween song compliments of Rob Zombie’s Halloween Hootenanny album.
Not only is this upbeat spookster a great Halloween song but it also features a pretty referential verse where he shouts out Psycho, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Stepford Wives.
There’s even a brief musical nod to The Munsters, all wrapped up in the Rev’s customized psychobilly sound.
As longtime followers are probably (painfully) aware, Monster Raps are load bearing supports in the Halloween Shindig rotation.
And when it comes to Monster Raps, few come as tailor-made awesome as Yeshwua Barnes and B Dub Woods’Maniac Cop Rap.
Check the stats:
Does it take the movie’s score and mix into an awesome beat? Check.
Does it play during the end credits? Check.
Does it feature the title repeated ad nauseum? Check
Does it talk about how badass the main character is? Check
Does it feature the most ridiculous lyrics you can image? Check plus.
Here’s some choice selection from the track…
Set ‘em on fire, I shoot ‘em with a Uzi
But he’ll show up in you’re jacuzzi!”
Gold.
And don’t waste time dialin’ 9-1-1
Forget karate and forget yer gun!
Forgotten.
You won’t get a ticket or pay a fine
You might as well be dealin’ with Frankenstein!
Fair Enough.
Without any further ado, segueing out of our 80’s Oddball Sequel Dance Party, from a sequel that’s arguably better than the original, 1990’s Maniac Cop 2, here’s the Manaic Cop Rap.
