The 90’s

The era of my teenage Halloween adventures, captured in the audio torrent that was the 90’s.

Audio

Red Right Hand

TRACK #35:

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

When I was 12 my brother bought me Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ Murder Ballads for Christmas, and ever since I’ve been a huge fan.

So it’s always given me great joy to have been able to include them legitimately, without forcing some song or another into one of my categories.

Thanks to Scream, Wes Craven’s self-aware response to 80’s slash, Nick and his Bad Seeds have an undisputed seat at the Shindig Table.

A creepy and atmospheric tune perfectly suited to a horror film, Red Right Hand (a nod itself to Milton’s Paradise Lost) looms over the speakers while Woodsboro closes early for its newly enacted curfew.

In a non-horror related aside, this song can also be heard as Jim Carey stumbles around with a large foam cowboy hat in Dumb and Dumber. And while I love me some Dumb and Dumber, I think the tune is a bit more at home in Scream.

Big gulps, huh? Alright……welp, see ya later.

 

Audio

The Addams Groove

TRACK #32:

The Addams Groove by Hammer

You knew it was coming. Perhaps you groaned, but you can’t tell me this track wasn’t telegraphed.

As silly as it is (and believe me, it’s pretty fucking silly,) The Addams Groove actually has a pretty positive message hidden underneath it’s thin, ridiculous shell. As Hammer states:

Now is the time to get in your mind
It’s ok to be yourself
Take foolish pride and put it aside
Like the Addamses, yo! They def.

Proper.

So, bust out your old hammer pants, do what you wanna do, say what you wanna say. Hell, maybe even kick and then slap a friend…there the Addams Family.

 

Audio

The Crypt Jam

TRACK #24:

The Crypt Jam by John Kassir and Chuckii Booker

In the early 90’s both hip hop and Tales from the Crypt were riding high on the pop culture wave, so it seemed only natural to some sleazy executive to combined these two concepts.

The result is The Crypt Jam, a rather curious musical number that finds our pal the Cryptkeeper inviting us to a “monster bash, if you will.”

The next 3 minutes or so is The Cryptkeeper (voiced by the great John Kassir) rhyming and punning his way through a generic 90’s hip-hop beat.

Even better is the video, featuring our pal dressed up in typical gansta threads of the era, dancing with a dozen or so fly-girls and a coupla pop-lockin’ zombies.

Was it a good idea? Well, The Shindig certainly thinks so, as this type of thing is right up our alley over here. However, that may not be everyone’s conclusion regarding this particular Monster Rap. Either way, the Cryptkeeper’s in the house, and we couldn’t be happier about that.

 

 

Audio

Tales From The Crypt (Theme)

TRACK #23:

Tales From the Crypt Theme by Danny Elfman

With so much representation on the Shindig, in one form or another, it’s strange to see we’ve gotten this far without including Danny Elfman.

Easily my favorite anthology-form horror offering, HBO’s Tales From the Crypt positively scared the shit out of me in my youth, largely thanks to its creepy intro with that incredible model, the Cryptkeeper bounding from his coffin like a ghoulish jack in the box, and Elfman’s eerie theme here.

Perhaps my favorite theme of all time, and certainly my favorite of Elfman’s (maybe with The Simpson’s catching a close 2nd), creeping us a little further into the Shindig, here’s Tales from The Crypt.

 

Audio

Halloween Shindig

TRACK #13:

Halloween Shindig by Ed Twilley and the Creepers

13’s a pretty horrific number. You got 13 Ghosts, 13 floors, 13 turns in a hangman’s noose, that hockey masked guy, the Knights Templar and all sorts of Lunar and Witchcraft associations. It’s also a prime number and appears in Fibonacci’s Sequence. Hell, it even has it’s own phobia – Triskaidekaphobia.

So, it was a nice coincidence to see this song pull into the 13 spot after some sample/track merging (the playlist originally had separate tracks for all the lead-ins.)

From one of my favorites sketches from one of my favorite sketch comedy shows of all time, Mr. Show with Bob and David, comes the namesake of the entire playlist, Halloween Shindig.

It’s a spot-on spoof of paranormal phenomenon shows like Sightings entitled Probings, and it poses one of the greatest questions of our times..

Do Monster Parties really exists?

 

Audio

Monsta’ Rap

TRACK #11:

Monsta’ Rap by Elvira

Coming up next on the ‘dig is a ghoul after my own heart – Elvira.

“Every tricker’s treat” has been making Halloween playlists (or more appropriately, Hallowween albums) since I was knee high to a Gremlin. In total, she has 4 different Halloween albums, and they’re all chock full of great songs, Elvira halloweeniness, and even original cuts from the Mistress herself. And number 11 is just such a track.

Not to be out-done (in any respect), Elvira comes correct with her own brand of referential novelty in Monsta’ Rap, featuring so many shout outs, its hard to imagine fitting them all into only 4 minutes. Seriously, everything from The Thing to Rodan and everyone from Christopher Lee to Barbara Steele gets put on blast here, creating possibly the most referential song on the list. And if that wasn’t enough, Elvira’s rapping it all together.

Merged here with her own introduction for some Halloweeny atmosphere. Enjoy.

 

Audio

Scream!

TRACK #8:

Scream! by The Misfits

“Blasphemy!”

Yeah, I might just say that too, cause I know what you’re thinkin’, “Newfits? For real? You haven’t even posted any actual Misfits songs yet, and you’re coming with some Newfits bullshit?”

All I can say to that is, I like the actual Misfits more, so they’re buried deeper in the playlist, for when everyone’s good and sauced up and the stragglers have had time to settle in. And don’t worry, there’s no shortage of classic Misfits tracks on Halloween Shindig.

Say what you want about this secondary incarnation of The Misfits, they had some good tunes. Tunes that are kind of hard for a Halloween playlist to straight up ignore. Tunes like today’s track for instance, entitled Scream!

Despite its (perhaps) misleading name, the song is actually an ode to William Castle’s wonderful 1959 classic The Tingler, about a terrible creature living inside all of you, which feeds on fear, and grows up your spine and into your brain! A creature that can only be stopped by the sound of screaming!

It’s a great premise, and it makes for one hell of a bizarre and imaginative film. Castle, master of the in-theater gimmick, made it even more fun by rigging some of the seats with vibrators to give certain audience members a special jolt at the right moment. 3D? Fuck all that shit, this is Percepto!

The lead-in for this is none other than Williams Castle’s own introduction to the film. Oh, and that’s Bart screaming at the end from Treehouse of Horror IV’s “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” segment. Enjoy!