halloween

Audio

Freaky Halloween

TRACK #370:

Freaky Halloween by EJ Rock

On several occasions now I have spoken about a hard to find or incomplete song, and that has somehow seemed to simply manifest that song into availability.

The first instance was with the woefully truncated Title Track to Aerobicide. This one took years, but was finally uncovered and restored to its full glory by Giles Nuytens. Thank him. Hit like and subscribe and all of that. He’s out there in these streets doin’ the Lord’s work.

The second instance was Bit Bizzare’s Freddy Krueger rap Freddie’s Groove, a rare Hip-Hop single which also existed in an incomplete form on YouTube and was hard come by on vinyl. Shortly after our Freddy’s Rap episode and posting it to the Freddy’s Raps playlists, two different copies of the 45 suddenly presented themselves. One of these now has a permanent residence in the Halloween Hole and has thusly been uploaded to YouTube and the Freddy Raps playlist.

Similarly, the 3rd occurrence was with another Freddy Rap entitled He’s Back from LA’s own Triple Scoop. Shortly after expressing my disappointment about not being able to include that song on the same playlist, a copy not only appeared on Discogs, but some kind soul uploaded it to Youtube as well. Thank the maker.

So now, rather than avoiding tonight’s song again for yet another year, I’m just gonna let her rip, in hopes that whatever synchronistic hoodoo is going on around here can maybe work it’s magic once again.

Because for many, many years now, this song has been the Holy Grail of Halloween Shindig.

Freaky Halloween? An Electro Rap tune from 1987 specifically about Halloween? Are you kidding me? Any rap song specifically about Halloween is rare enough, but something of this nature, from this era? It had to be great.

But alas, years and years passed and I had yet to come across a single copy for sale. Only 2 registered users on Discog even owned it. 42 other users wanted it, and yet not 1 has ever sold on the platform in its 22 years of existence.

It is a song so elusive, I didn’t even know what it sounded like…

…until last year, that is.

See, in early 2022, some remarkable person took their rare 45 of EJ Rock’s Freaky Halloween and graciously uploaded it to YouTube. And it’s glorious. It’s everything I had hoped it could be and more, but…

There’s always a “but,” isn’t there?

See, this guy not only recorded it through what sounded like the microphone on his cellphone, but he only uploaded a minute’s worth of the song! What kind of sick joke is this, sir?! You have, in your possession one of the rarest Halloween songs known to man, and a YouTube channel, and the wherewithal to upload the track, and this is the treatment you afford it?

I suppose we should be grateful that we have it at all. And I am, please don’t misunderstand me. But, in a way, it’s almost worse now. See, when I didn’t know what it sounded like, it was still a mystery. It still had the chance to be whack. But it’s not whack! It’s fantastic! And now curious desire has been replaced with desperate need. Desperate need that can not be satiated.

And look, I begged him. He’s in Brazil, I believe. I used multiple accounts to request he upload the full song. I even pleaded with him in Portuguese to give this song to the world, fully. But at present, he has not acquiesced.

This playlist will never be complete in my eyes without this song. This full song.

If anyone reading this post has this 45, I will pay handsomely for it. If you can not part with it, I completely understand. But could you please make a decent rip of this song and send it to The Shindig. I’d pay just as handsomely for that. Even if you don’t own it and just have access to it – please! Access it for the team, champ!

Hell, maybe can we all just go to this guy’s YouTube and kindly request he post the full song? Even with his shitty phone recording. I’d take that at this point, just to hear the rest of the song. It’s a Freaky Halloween, and goddamn it, we need to know why!

The Shindig needs this song.
You need this song.
The World needs this song.

Please help Halloween Shindig make this and all future Halloweens, freaky.

Until then, let us bask in what little exists of Ernest Jordan’s electro-rap masterpiece Freaky Halloween.

Now, this is all you would have read and heard, had I posted this last year when it was supposed to post. Indeed, it’s all you would have read if I had posted this 3 weeks ago…

Because that is when the hoodoo apparently worked it’s magic yet again. Just sitting in the draft folder for almost 3 years, this post stirred the spirits. And like some summoned Halloween miracle, the very same guy on YouTube, DJTuta from Brazil, posted his 45 for sale on Discogs. Get right outta town.

Of course, he posted it for an absolutely unconscionable amount of money. Well, at least for a price that was completely unjustifiable to me. The dream was shattered.

So I began to soothe myself, “C’mon. No one is gonna pay that much for Freaky Halloween. It’ll sit there unsold, he’ll eventually mark it down, and then you can rush in! It’s yours, just be patient.”

But what if it didn’t just sit there unsold? Was that a risk I was willing to take?

After a few days went by with no one purchasing the record, I was feeling reassured. But I started getting paranoid, too. I had been down this road before with other rare items. If something, even something rare,  is available and every time you check on it it’s still available, you can become complacent and you drag your feet. But then bam! All of a sudden and before you know it, it’s gone. You have to just accept you had a chance and you squandered it and now you’re waiting again. What if that happened here?

Only 47 (apparently 5 more people had expressed interest in the last 2 years) other people “wanted” it on Discogs, and that’s not that many. But it was still 46 chances for someone to swoop in and scoop it up. What if this was our only chance? What if it got purchased and hoarded again and we never got to even really hear it?! What if someone else out there decided they needed Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig needed Freaky Halloween?!!

Well, fuck all that business. No one needs Freaky Halloween more than Halloween Shindig, goddamn it! And The Shindig will democratize its availability and make sure that the whole world receives it, uncut and clear! This was what this site was made for, and this is what needed to be done.

But that price. That goddamn price. We simply couldn’t pay it. It was just completely unjustifiable.

But…

There’s always another “but.” We wouldn’t be talking about this still if there wasn’t another “but,” right?

Because that’s when I remembered – The Shindig coffers! Of course!!

See, there’s a specific PayPal account where all the Redbubble, TeePublic, Zazzle, Ko-Fi and Shindig Shop sales just deposit to, and it’s not my main PayPal account. It’s an account I hadn’t actually looked at in almost 4 years. And holy shit. It was possible.

Why, if not for this very reason, was there even an account? Why, if not for this express purpose, had people ever supported this foolish endeavor of ours? Why, if not to make that which is unobtainable to one, accessible to all through the power of many?

If you have ever purchased a die-cut, a sticker, a Title Tracks T-Shirt, a Shindig Radio dog blanket, a throw pillow with Kyle’s face on it, or simply given us a few buck just for the fuck of it – then this is for you. This super rare and almost unobtainium piece of Halloween music exists on this website, in its complete form and for the entire world to enjoy, because of you. All of you.

My endless gratitude goes out to each and every person who has ever contributed anything to this fund. You have made this Halloween aspiration – an aspiration you were not even aware existed – come to fruition, in the clutch, when it was absolutely needed the most. And for that, I thank you.

And you should thank each other. Because of you all, this Halloween, and every Halloween hereafter, will be a Freaky Halloween.

 

PS: Oh, and the song?  C’mon, that synth bass? That chorus? This horn bag slangin’ it to this chick on Halloween? It’s a straight up Halloween sex song, and it’s incredible. Count Dracula, who sucked me dry? Get the fuck outta here. I love this shit. It’s so much more than I could have hoped.

Audio

Heavy Metal Halloween

TRACK #381

Heavy Metal Halloween by Great White Lyin’ Snake

Hard ‘Til Halloween. Hashtag it. It can be a thing. People can take that in any direction they want, too. Let’s put some creative shit on that tag. I don’t wanna see a bunch of boners either. A few is fine, it’s unavoidable. But let’s not have another #erectfest incident, ok? Cool.

So yeah, Heavy Metal Halloween. It’s a phrase we’ved use a lot around Halloween Shindig. Hell, our Halloween episode of Shindig Radio in 2019 was literally called A Heavy Metal Halloween.

That episode featured songs exclusively called Halloween performed exclusively by 80’s Metal bands. In fact, our last track was very much one of them. There was enough of those bastards to populate an entire episode, and we still found even more after the fact! There’s a couple in the Bullpen even, if you’ll believe that. Hell, there’s another on coming in like 10 days. It’s crazy.

So, I was pumped to stumble across this song literally called Heavy Metal Halloween. I wish it had been featured on that episode, but hey, we can’t have it all. But we can have it ring the bell for our Hard ‘Til Halloween countdown.

There is some solace in the fact that I found this after 2019 though, and that’s that despite being called Heavy Metal Halloween, this song isn’t exactly the most Metally, nor Heaviest, song we’ve ever featured. And it’s certainly not played by an aging 80’s metal band from Europe either. I think these guys are from Rhode Island in the 90’s, so it’s really just as well that it wasn’t featured.

It is performed by Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake, which, if you’re a keen-eared Metal fan, will song like a fun portmanteau of Great White, White Lion and White Snake.

The band seems to be the jokey product of performers from a variety of punk bands including Sleigher, Vague Perception, Beer and Suckface.

Oddly, the song hails from their album Great Whyte Christmas, which features a lot of fun and silly tracks including the Misfits Last Caress turned into Last Christmas. It honestly sounds a bit like Deck My Balls to me and if I didn’t know any better I’d accuse Mikey and the Crypt Keeper Five of lifting this entire concept wholesale from The Snake. This is such a weird and rare little album though, I seriously doubt that’s the case.

I might end up posting the whole thing up on YouTube, as I had to grab a hard copy to ad this song, but I’m not sure. Until then, let’s kick out this block and get Hard ‘Til Halloween with Great Whyte Lyin’ Snake’s Heavy Metal Halloween!

 

Audio

Halloween (Avenger)

TRACK #380:

Halloween by Avenger

2022 saw no shortage of Heavy Metal tunes. I think there were 8, by my count. Not a bad showing.

But in 2023, we completely ignored metal altogether. I’m not entirely sure if that was intentional on my part. I have a sort of master list that ebbs and flows and sometimes that doesn’t always jibe with how the seasons break out. Either way, 2023 was metal-free. What a Samhain bummer.

So, for the 2024 season we’re bringing it back. We’re goin Hard ‘Til Halloween. We got Heavy Metal Halloweeners, Referential Metal and Inclusive Metal all on the docket and we’re gonna keep your head bangin’ til the costumes are hangin. And if it ain’t quite Metal, it’ll still be hard, guaranteed.

Setting off this block is a dusty old fucker you might be familiar with. See, we featured this tune on Shindig Radio’s Heavy Metal Halloween back in 2019, and I could have sworn it was already on the playlist. But it was not! So, we’re gonna set the record straight and get this straggler on the roster tonight. It’s none other than Halloween by Avenger.

The German Power Metal Band Rage was known, for a very brief period of their prolific career, as Avenger. Seems there was a British band by that name as well, so they went ahead and changed their name to Rage.

But not before they released their first album, which incidentally includes tonight’s Shindigger, predictably called Halloween.

Like their German brethren Helloween, Avenger takes a few minutes to wail away for us about the Eve of All Hallows, taking the stance that the night is inherently evil and linked to Satan.

For the record, I’d just like to state, I am not a Devil worshipper. Nor am I a Satanist, Luciferian or otherwise. I pledge no specific allegiance to Satan, Bel, Baal, Baphomet, Set, or any creepy fuckin’ Owl gods. I’m not entirely sure a being of such report exists, nor do I think any of us are. At least, I’d like to hope none of us are aware anyway.

But assuming a sentient being representing all evil with whatever powers, attributes, motivations and intent the old books of lore (or berobed weirdos in the woods of Mendecino County) have assigned upon it does actually exist, I wish not to align myself with them.

Now, the pious might argue that by simply having a blog and a room dedicated to a day not set aside for the Lord All Mighty, I am implicitly doing exactly that. Or that in creating an entire playlist of songs that not only fail to glorify Jesus, but it most cases represent a direct affront to him, that anything else I might say on that matter would be complete and utter horseshit. Hell, they might even be right. I’m not really sure how all of that works.

But if an all-powerful and omnipotent being stands as the antithesis to such an evil being, I imagine it knows full well about my post here and is hopefully noting my rejection of any and all actual creatures it stands in opposition against. But again, probably not how all that really works. At least, not if these righteous folks are to be believed anyway.

Look, I just like the color orange and think spooky monster stuff is pretty neat. I enjoy detailed and cartoonish representations of those monsters.  In particular, I love old Halloween decorations. I like hazy blow-molded lights and creased cardboard die-cuts and honey-combed tissue paper shaped like bats. I like plastic Jack O’Lanterns and Ben Cooper masks and whatever the hell that stuff is they make stretchy cobwebs out of.

I like it when the leaves turn and crunch under the feet. I like the sharp sensation of breathing a lungful of cool autumn air. I like harvest foods like apples and corn and man, pumpkins with faces carved into them sure look cool. 

I like the smell of latex masks and that shitty colored hair spray. I like candy and the communal spirit of the night. I like that it is a neighborhood-centered holiday rather than a family-centered one. I have fond memories of Halloweens past, trick or treating in the crisp air and watching Halloween TV shows and scary movies after.

Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps I’m unwittingly praying to Satan everyday through these activities. I’d sure hope not, and would like to go on record as such not being my intention. And that’s because that’s just not what Halloween means to me. It means the acknowledgment and honoring of death as one season of life gives way to another. This is not evil. Nature doesn’t understand that concept. Nature just is.

But maybe that’s that naïveté. Maybe it’s not about what it means to me, or what I ignorantly think it means. Maybe there’s something entirely more sinister at play here. But I dunno. That sounds like a whole lot of self righteous, puritanical Christian bullshit to me. But maybe that’s just the devil hard at work again, manipulating me with lies.

Now, should you go the other way with this concept and think that yes, Halloween is inherently evil and fuck yeah that’s exactly why you like it and my declaration of non-allegiance to Satan seriously offends you as a reader, cause man doesn’t it seem like some pussy ass shit over here at Halloween Shindig right now, I thought they were down – then shit, I dunno.

I’m not sure what to tell you, in that case. If that’s the sort of thing that you and your Master do not particularly appreciate, then I guess I’d apologize. But what do you need that for? You’re all fuckin evil and shit, right? What do you care what I say or think? Shut the fuck up, be fuckin evil and get the fuck down on this Hard ‘Til Halloween shit, will ya?!

 

Audio

The Night Before Halloween


TRACK #331:

The Night Before Halloween by Bill Buchanan

I often see people lament, upon hearing a new Halloween Song, that there just isn’t enough Halloween music in the world.

This is understandable. It’s definitely not as ubiquitous as Christmas music, cause radio stations and stores aren’t exactly blasting that shit the minute the autumnal equinox hits. And there’s certainly not nearly as much of it, but it’s out there. You’d never know it, cause no one plays it, but it’s around. And there’s a decent amount of it too. 

I mean, we literally just cleared 330 tracks on The Shindig here. Now granted, the lion’s share of those songs are not specifically Halloween songs. However, thanks to my handy category search it’s easy to determine (unless, of course, I forgot to tag something properly and you‘re nice and patient) that a good 64 of those songs are specifically Halloween songs, give or take a couple that aren’t really talking about Halloween. But they probably say it, and hey that’s worth something, right?

And I know, that’s really a drop in the pumpkin compared to Christmas songs, and there certainly isn’t enough, I’ll agree with that. But that’s more than those people probably think there are, and there’s plenty, and I mean plenty, more Halloween songs I have yet to, or will ever, include on this playlist.

What I mean to say, which I already sort of said before I said all that other stuff I probably didn’t even need to say, is that they’re out there, you just gotta look. Or, just get on over to Halloween Shindig, cause we do the lookin’ for ya.

Take tonight’s song for example. Here we have the best of both worlds and there’s a good chance you’re not familiar with this tune. I wasn’t for many years and I run a damn Halloween music blog. It’s shameful probably, but I eventually found it, stuck it in the old bullpen, and tonight is it’s night to shine!

Because well, it’s the night before Halloween!  Ya know, Cabbage Night…

or Devil’s Night, Mischief Night, Corn Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Beggar’s Night or whatever the hell goofball, homespun regional nonsense the town you grew up in decided to call the night before the already the night before an actual holiday.

What’s that business all about? Seriously, how far back does this shit stretch? Does the 29th get its own fuckin’ name? Is that Grabber’s Night?  Or is that too close to Goosey Night? What about the 28th? Can’t it be a night too? How bout Tugger’s Night? Where does this shit end?

Whatever it is you call this night, which for some reason has it own goddamn name too, here’s a song all about it. It’s a play on the old Night Before Christmas poem, with a Halloween twist, from singer/songwriter Bill Buchanan.

Bill is probably best known for his break-in style novelty record team-ups with none other than Halloween compilation staple Dickie Goodman. We’ve yet to feature any Dickie Goodman on the playlist, but he’s actually got a song slated for somewhere in the 330’s, so we’ll be hearing from him real soon. At least in Playlist time, anyway.

This tune came before Bill ever hooked up with Dickie though, way back in 1962. The B-side to this 45 was a song called Beware, and it’s a pretty boppin’ Vampire-Halloweener in its own right.

For now though, we’re gonna keep it timely, and wish you all a Happy Whatever the Fuck Night with The Night Before Halloween.

Enjoy!

 

Audio

Halloween (Bill Ervin)

TRACK #330:

Halloween by Bill Ervin

So, we’ve reached a true 10-slot on this “Halloweens-til-Halloween” run, but what’s a Halloween playlist to do? We’ve just spent the last 11 days burning out potential 10-slot candidates (and some good ones too) on this ill-advised-if-I-wanna-keep-having-actual-Halloween-songs-to-write about Halloween celebration. So, what do you do, I ask?

Well, you drop the best damn Halloween song you’ve dug up all year, that’s what you do.

And that’s what we did. And this is a true new-find for 2022. This didn’t have to wait in the bullpen for even a season.

And after this many years, and this many songs, the fact that there’s still Halloween songs out there to find – and true Halloween Songs at that – and even true Halloween Songs that are this fun –  is pretty crazy.

Though I will admit, after this year’s exhaustive digging, I’m pretty sure that’s coming to an end. With the exception of 2 very specific hold-outs I have yet to be able to hear, if there’s a Halloween song out there that isn’t already on this playlist, it’s probably in the bullpen at this point, or has been permanently benched.

And I know what you’re thinking, there’s no chance this is a good song. Ole Chef’s Salad up there ain’t instilling a whole lot of confidence in ya. I get it. Cause what the fuck is that, right? Fuckin’ Chef’s Salad? That’s about as Halloweeny as an Easter basket.

I mean, I guess the orange and green is sort of Halloweeny. That 70’s aesthetic might maybe lead one to believe something halfway listenable is laying in wait. But if you don’t like music that’s almost 50 years old, then even that line of thinking is a bust.

But trust me, this one’s a winner. It’s not one of those not really about Halloween Halloween songs either. This is a true blue Halloween jam. And it’s not one of those short and mildly irritating, sung by a weird lady or balding dude for some record that teachers were supposed to play in their classrooms in 1972 songs either. Though in fairness, I usually avoid them, but there’s a few of those that are pretty good, too. Even some classics, and there’s definitely a few waiting for their number to be called.

No, this is a real song, sung by – ok, just some guy no one really heard from otherwise, but still a dude with access to potential mainstream success. It’s a song.

The Chef’s Salad things a bit weird, I’ll give ya that. This appears to have been a compilation album released by producer Wayne Wadhams in an attempt to capture and then market the thriving music scene in Boston and New England during the mid-70’s. Since most of the acts don’t seem to have made any waves following it’s release, I’m not sure Wayne was all that successful to that end.

What he did successfully manage to do however, for some odd reason, was capture one hell of a Halloween song. Now, why Bill Ervin would compose this tune, or why even Wayne thought it was a shinning example of the city’s music scene at the time, is anyone’s guess. I mean, I’m glad they did don’t get me wrong, but it seems like an odd choice for a music sampler LP.

Interesting side note here on this song in regards to it’s placement with Pete Antell’s It’s Halloween.

You may notice it begins the exact same way Pete and Ray’s song began. You may even notice that a lot of songs around here feature this little lick. Even Heavy Metal Halloweener’s Iron Cross used it, much to Mikey’s chagrin. And beyond that, you know this little ditty. You’ve heard it a million times in various places, but what the hell is it?

Well, it’s a tune called Mysterioso Pizzicato, which is sometimes referred to as The Villain’s Theme.

It was a piece of generic sheet music found in The Remick Folio of Moving Picture Music which was published in 1914. This book was used by piano accompanists playing live music during the silent film era. It was meant to indicate the presence of a bad guy, a villain if you will, or some other such sneaky or unscrupulous bastard. And boy, did it.

At almost 120 years old, you still recognize this, that’s how ubiquitous it became over time. Even to the point of cliche, hence Mikey’s chagrin over Iron Cross.

Maybe you’re familiar with this one. Maybe it’s been a long-standing Holiday must for some of ya’ll out there. But I’ve been digging around for just this kind of thing for years, and for whatever reason, it took me this long to find this one. But I’m sure glad I finally did, cause it immediately stood out to me as a tune I couldn’t believe I hadn’t even heard before, much less didn’t have on The Shindig.

So here it is, love it or leave it (either way, we’re definitely keeping it) it’s Halloween by Bill Ervin.

 

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

Halloween (Fallacy)

TRACK #328:

Halloween by Fallacy

For our third and final Heavy Metal Halloween melter from 1986, we’re coming back stateside with this rare and low-fi demo from Las Vegas’ Fallacy.

It’s not uncommon for heavy metal bands to write a song about Halloween. Indeed, The Shindig is littered with them. It’s also not uncommon for those bands to just go ahead and name that song “Halloween.” Fallacy’s tune will bring the grand total of literal Halloween heavy metal tracks to 9. And don’t worry, cause there’s more in the bullpen.

What’s also not uncommon, but certainly less not uncommon, if for those bands to directly tapped into John Carpenter’s classic theme. Wasted, Fondlecorpse, and Warhammer are all culprits, and you can add Fallacy to the pile, cause they bring that sinister 5/4 theme right out the gate. They veer off ultimately, but even a lick is good enough for us.

Fallacy wasn’t long for the world, and not much info is floating around for them except some posts trying to clear up the (no surprise here) common confusion of them with a band named Fallacy from Michigan. In addition to the rare cassette-only 1986 demo Fall and Remain (which can be heard in poor quality on YouTube) they appeared to have only have one other release. It’s a live cassette of show from the same year which features these and a few other tunes. Check out this dope flyer. I’m not sure if that tape is from this show, but who cares:That’s metal as fuck, and 6 buck? Not bad for a night of thrash.

It’s a shame they never got a clean album recorded, cause Fall and Remain rips. I’ll say the vocals could be stronger, but the band (particularly the drummer) are just mowing these songs down. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a cleaner cut of this song, that’s for sure. I eq’ed some of the wildly excessive bass outta that YouTube copy, but I’m no mixing engineer, and it’s still a pretty ragged recording. My apologies. If i ever run across a better rip, I’ll definitely update the playlist.

Since the boys from Fallacy seem to be directly referencing Halloween 2 here, and that one never got a proper Heavy Metal Halloween tune of it’s own, we’re headed back to Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween Night of 1978, for more of the night he came home.

So grab a service revolver and buck 6 shots…and then for sure tell everyone that excessively for the rest of the night, so much so that reporters can overhear you and then immediately jam that information into radio news updates about the ongoing search for Michael Myers.

Here’s Fallacy with Halloween!

 

Audio

Halloween Night (Fortress)

TRACK #327:

Halloween Night by Fortress

It’s time to feel the steel with our second Samhain shot, a song that also happens to be from 1986.

This ones hails from traditionally neutral Switzerland, and takes aim at our Hallowed Eve via brute force and a stern warning.  It’s Fortress and their track Halloween Night.

Unfortunately, not much seems to be known about this band, and the tune comes from their lone release, the 4-track EP Take the Night.

So little is this band discussed that only 1 image of the album even appears to appear online. It’s pretty low rez and it’s the album cover you see above, which I snatched from discogs.

Where did Fortess come from? Where have Fortress gone? Why are there so many other fuckin bands named Fortress? Seriously.

Encyclopedia Metallum lists 20 bands in total with the name Fortress. Are you kidding me? It took me 5 minutes just to determine which Fortress was this Fortress, only to discover they didn’t have any damn information about them anyway. Beautiful.

Well, since we don’t know anything about Fortress, we’re just gonna talk about this now I guess, because…fuckin’ Fortress? Really? That’s the band name that’s getting into double digits? It’s not even a good band name! I mean, it’s alright, but it don’t sound nearly as tough as all these dudes seem to thinks it sounds.

It’s 1 word with 2 syllables, and that’s always a solid move for a band name. Straight to the point and harsh. Slayer, Vemon, Krokus, it just works. So I’ll give them that. But while it does have the upfront punch of “Fort,” that double S at on the back end really weakens up the whole affair.

So why are so many groups clamoring for this name? Cause it’s strong and keeps out invaders? Cause it can’t be penetrated? What’s the allure? Cause it can’t be the phonetics of this thing.

I’m not sure, but for 20 bands, spanning 3 decades, Fortress connected. And from all across the globe too! Hungary, Bavaria, Poland, Australia, even the Netherlands, all have Fortresses. Hell, the US accounts for almost half of them with 8 different Fortresses!

You wanna tell me one or two, sure. Bands unwittingly named each other the same shit all the time, particularly in the days before the internet.

But the The Metal Archives at Encylopedia Metallum have been around since 2002, people. Almost half the bands using this name came into existence after 2006. What?

Any band naming themselves post-2002 has no fuckin’ excuse. You come up with a some generic-ass nonsense like Fortress, you cross reference that shit with The Metal Archives, see if anyone else has already used it. Chances are they have, because you’re not that creative and Metal’s been around for over 40 fuckin’ years.

Maybe one other band used it 25 years ago and no one’s ever heard them. Fine, keep Fortress. Wait, there’s 17 other bands named fucking Fortress? Put that one back on the shelf, fellas. The world doesn’t need another Fortress. It’s not that great of a band name to begin with.

The first instances of Fortress seem to appear in 1980, with one glamy lookin outfit from LA (unsurprisingly) and another in Kansas. Germany pumped one out shortly after in 1981, and then our boys from Switzerland appear in tandem with another LA band in 1983.

Now, those 2 LA acts need to check the flyers outside the Rainbow Room or some shit and get their acts together. You’re probably using the same goddamn rehearsal space on Cahuenga, for christ sakes. The rest of ya’ll early 80’s guys, I’ll cut some slack. You late 80’s Johnny-Come-Latelys have a little more latitude but not a lot, and any of you clowns from the 90’s shoulda better known better. After that, you got high speed cable internet and a fuckin’ google search bar. Use that shit. Acting like you got a real unique one on your hands and not looking that shit up is just arrogant.

However, since our boys here were pretty early adopters and all the way over in the Swiss Alps just shredding up avalanches like they were in goddamn Blood Tracks, we’re gonna let them off the easiest. They’re the the only ones with a Halloween song anyway, so they’re clearly the only one’s deserving.

But seriously, no more fuckin Fortresses, alright everybody?

 

Audio

Night of the Hallowe’en

TRACK #326:

Night of the Hallowe’en by Touched

We’re gonna leave the 80’s behind and set a course for an old timey Halloween. But before we do, we’re gonna take a right turn outta the discotheque, head down Mundhra Road toward High Pike Farm and make a quick stop at The Quarry. Cause we’re lookin for a little rock over here and they got all the rock we need. So, here comes a triple-barreled blast of 80’s Halloween Metal to power our trip even further back in time.

This first shot is coming at you from all the way across the pound, with the UK metal molesters, Touched, and their 1986 album Death Row.

The glam-rock stylings of Twisted Sister team up with the NWOBHM sound of early Maiden to produce the sufficiently heavy but not necessarily intimidating, Night of the Hallowe’en.

There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of info floating around about Touched, but I will say, it’s an odd band name. Not necessarily tough, now is it? Certainly not in a metal context.

I suppose they could mean like “touched,”like you might say of someone who is particularly imbecilic or perhaps even crazy. That’s sort of tough-er I suppose, but not terribly. Just kind of offensive, really. Unless they’re directing that toward themselves, I guess.

Or, they could mean this in like a “you got touched” way. But not in the good way that you’d want to be touched, but in the bad way that no one wants to be touched. But thats weird right? To name your band that? Fuckin-A right it is.

Which I guess just leaves “touched” in the good way. And that could either be physically or emotionally. Like perhaps one feels after they watch We Bough a Zoo, or Mac and Me.

But that’s decidedly not tough. In fact,  it might just be the opposite of tough.

The physical (and let’s just assume sexual) connotation of “touched” is the only thing that’s really left, and even that don’t make sense as a band name. But, hey, Touched it is I guess.

And that’s before we even get into this song’s title. Cause it’s not Night of Hallowe’en, It’s Night of THE Hallowe’en.

That’s weird. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone put a “the” in front of Halloween. Personally, I kinda like it. It’s makes Halloween itself sound like a monster that’s gonna get ya, or an evil entity unto itself that you better watch the fuck out for.

But I had to double check the album sleeve on that one, cause dude doesn’t even say that shit in the song! And I think that would be cool. But nope, just the title. Odd move.

So, it looks like we gotta whole lotta question here with Touched and not a whole lotta answers. We’re just gonna have to leave it at that I suppose. At least for now.

But that’s ok, cause we’ve just arrive at The Quarry, so let’s wake the neighbors, and get Touched by The Hallowe’en!


Note: I realize the audio on this one’s a bit greasy. There’s 2 versions on YouTube right now (already not a great place to get the song) one that’s real low quality and another that skips a couple times. I caught and corrected one but missed the other completely. However, I have this LP en route to The Halloween Hole as we speak, so I’ll update the track here, and even give YouTubers a better option after the season wraps. So if you dig this tune, stay tuned!

Audio

How Much Can You Take?

TRACK #315:

How Much Can You Take? by M.C. A.D.E.

The real question is how much can you take of M.C. A.D.E. More specifically, his grating vocoder rapping.

Well, Adrian Does Everything (or Anus Do Exterminate, whichever you prefer) is challenging us to find out, with his tune that inexplicably uses John Carpenter’s classic Halloween Theme.

And to good effect, as this  beat is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, that fat shit A.D.E. comes in with his monotonous vocoder sound and we quite literally begin asking ourselves “How man can we take?”

I get it. I know. But hear me out.

We gave A.D.E. a pretty hard time on the Freddy Raps episode, and we didn’t really redeem ourselves on Halloween H40 either, and I feel bad.

Dude essentially invented Miami Bass, used the Halloween theme, produced gnarly, trunk thundering bass and he made a Freddy Rap. C’mon, that’s worth some respect, no? And I know his Freddy Rap is pretty irritating, and we definitely took a firm stance on no Nightmare on ADE Street on the playlist, but we gotta throw him a bone, right? Just for being so shitty to a pioneer?

And this song is better! Isn’t it? I mean, I know it’s not much better, but it’s better, right? Plus, he uses the Halloween Theme to craft a great beat for crying out loud. And hell, I’d put money on him being one of the first guys, if not the first guy sample this theme.

But I’m really just guessin’ here. I don’t have that kinda info on hand. In fact, I wanna double check this claim. Gimme a sec.

Ok. So Jaybok the City Ace seems to be the first guy to do this, on 1987’s Hip Hop Phenomenal, followed closely thereafter by Slick Master Rick on his tune Brothers and Sisters House on 13th Street in 1988.

But then, 1989 rolls around with Esham, The Beat Pirates and M.C. A.D.E. all sampling this theme.

Slick Master Rick and The Beat Pirates both made clubby electronic dance tunes with no rapping, and The Beat Pirates are sampling what sounds to me like the Part 2 theme, not that that matters really.

Esham is definitely using the tune, but it doesn’t sound sampled to me. And the part he uses is kind of a pushed-to-the-back-of-the-mix flourish that decorates a beat that isn’t really built on Michael’s theme. I will say his song is much better all around than A.D.E.’s though. So there’s that.

But then there’s Jaybok. Unfortunately, The City Ace has A.D.E. dead to rights. Hip Hop Phenomenal was released 2 years earlier, and it slaps. The beat is on point and his rapping isn’t all annoying like A.D.E.’s. And not for nothing, but Jaybok’s flow is smooth. Smooth like “is this really from 1987?” smooth.

However, I can’t say for sure, but I might argue that Jaybok isn’t sampling the song either. It sound different, like it’s just played in another synth. It could be a pitched sample, for sure, but it doesn’t sound like a straight sample the way A.D.E’s does.

So, he’s probably at least the 2nd, but at the most generous, I’d stand by my statement and say A.D.E. was the first cat to really use the sample in this manner, for a rap song that relies heavily on Carpenter’s theme as the beat. You could argue against that effectively though.

Either way, that’s not bad, particularly considering how much it’s been used since, and whom by.

Ice T, Afrika Bambaataa, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Biggie, Soulja Boy, Juciy J and even (unsurprisingly) The Insane Clown Posse, have all had producers that dipped their MPCs into this classic piece of horror scoring.

But here we are, with our friend A.D.E., the man who makes me reconsider my love of the Vocoder. It’s like Adrian, I know it’s a dope tool, but you can’t rap the whole song through it like that bud, you just can’t. And what Vocoder are you using, cause it doesn’t sound that great. Is it even a real vocoder, or an FX pedal? Whodini had it right. You gotta get that VP330 Whodini had if you go hard like that. I know that fucker was pricey (still is!) and Whodini was Whodini, but there had to be someone around the studio with something close.

But I digress.

I’m sort of in a conundrum over this song. I’d like to include it, but frankly, it doesn’t really nest into any of The Shindig’s categories. It’s not Referential (unfortunately) and it doesn’t appear in any film (that I’m aware of anyway) and it’s certainly not about monsters or Halloween. But it is using the Halloween Theme, right?

But if I went around just adding every song that used this theme (Blood for Blood’s Spit My Last Breath comes to mind) we’d be here till Thanksgiving.

So, technically, it shouldn’t even be here. But we played it on Shindig Radio Ep. 20 and I’d like to commemorate that moment on the playlist and reproduce some of that Halloween Kills vibe here, and maybe assuage some of this guilt I’m feeling over giving A.D.E. so much grief.

So, if you’ll all indulge me for a moment, I’ll just chalk this one up as a Horror Theme and  give M.C. A.D.E. his day on The Shindig, lord knows he’s earned it.

How Much Can You Take?

 

Audio

Episode 20: Halloween H40 II: H43: Halloween Dies Tonight

The Shindig Radio team returns to the scene of their original crime: Haddonfield!

3 years ago, Shindig Radio first exposed themselves to the world while jack-jawing about Halloween H40. So, you knew that when the sequel to that requel finally rolled around, we were gonna be right there weighing in.

Only that didn’t happen, did it?

Well, not as far as you’re concerned anyway, because a crippling technical difficulty prevented you from hearing that episode when it was originally intended to air.

Now, through the magic of modern audio technology and a little bit of patience, this once thought “lost forever” episode returns to life – a year late and totally irrelevant because a new Halloween has already come out.

STOP! wondering if evil is going to die tonight!

LOOK! at you’re phone or computer while 4 aging assholes complain about a thing not necessarily intended for them!

LISTEN! to Mikey blow the lid off of Tommy Lee Wallace’s 40-year-long mask deception!

it’s…

Halloween H40 II: H43 Halloween Dies Tonight 

 

 

 

Audio

Episode 16: Happy Halloweird

Shindig Radio is back and we’re celebrating the weirdest year in recent memory by loading your pumpkin with the weirdest Halloween songs you can imagine.

You’ll hear holiday classics from the likes of The Shaggs, Jan Terri, Butch Patrick, The Ghostbusters and more!

And for the first time ever, Shindig Radio is picking up The Creep Phone to listen to your calls!

Join Mikey Rotella, Paul Lynde, Graham C. Schofield, Salsa’s Kamar de los Reyes, Matt Mastrella, The Old Gray Goose, Joe Piscapo and Jeff Baloney for the weirdest Halloween Special since Pinky Tuscadero sang Disco Baby with KISS!

So put on your masks, grab a fistful of pumpkin boys and get ready for some football, cause anything can happen on a Halloween episode of Shindig Radio, and this one’s a disaster!

It’s…

Happy Halloweird!

Audio

Halloween

TRACK #270:

Halloween by Bing Crosby, Boris Karloff & Victor Moore

Many of you are no doubt familiar with Bing Crosby, if only as the narrator of Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or from White Christmas. Already, no Holiday slouch.

Well, back in October of 1946, ole Bing here started hosting Philco Radio Time, a program sponsored by the Philco Corporation, who made phonographs back then. This program was known for being the 1st pre-recorded radio show in America! This was no doubt due to Philco’s influence as pioneers in the recording and reproduction of sound. Pretty neat

Like the variety television shows that would follow in its footsteps, this programm featured Bing and various musical guests performing songs and skits. Mostly though, it featured ads for Philco phonographs, unsurprisingly.

On October 29th 1947, Bing invited Universal Horror star Boris Karloff onto the program for a little festive spice. You can listen to the entire program here, if you’ve got a thing for old timey radio.

That night, stage actor and comedian Victor Moore was also on hand and the 3 of them decided to sing everybody a song for Halloween.

Now, this song was later released on a Bing Crosby compilation with much better audio quality then what’s available on the full program. However, I’ve taken the intro from the full episode to give the song a bit more context, which will explain the sudden shift in audio quality.

Long sitting in the Shindig Bullpen, 2020 seemed like an appropriate to year to finally add a song about folks being too afraid to leave their houses for Halloween.

I’m not sure what next week is gonna look like, mostly because I’m writing this under quarantine 5 months before Halloween. But also because, in this moment, it’s hard to imagine folks opting to have their children walk up to several dozen houses and grab fistfuls of unsanitized candy from the communal bowls of complete strangers. We’ll see I suppose.

However society ends up handling this already anemic autumnal activity, I’m sure it’ll be a thing straight out of 2020. So, let’s hear the newest oldest track on Halloween Shindig. But first, as the old Silver Shamrock ad says…

It’s Time…It’s Time….

Put on your mask…

 

Audio

Halloween (Wasted)

TRACK #250

Halloween by Wasted

To kick off October proper, we’re gonna pull the lead-off batter from last year’s Heavy Metal Halloween episode of Shindig Radio, which segues nicely, being that it makes good use of a crude reworking of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween theme.

The oldest Heavy Metal Halloween track thus far on The Shindig, this one comes from Danish rocker’s Wasted, who formed in 1981. After releasing this demo in 1984, they toured extensively across Europe and began putting together a follow-up record.

Unfortunately, their record company at the time didn’t much care for this new material at all. They added insult to injury by suggesting the band would be more successful if they altered their style to sound more like Twisted Sister or Bon Jovi.

Wasted didn’t handle this seemingly constructive, yet mostly damn questionable, criticism all that well and slowly began imploding.

However, they reunited recently and just last year released a new album of brand new material that thankfully sounds nothing like either Bon Jovi or Twisted Sister.

So, despite the record company’s shortsightedness and the toll that not playing that type of ball offered Wasted, I’d like to personally thank them guys for sticking to their guns and providing this solid stand-up double, that wholly secures their place on Halloween Shindig.

Happy October Weeners!

 

Audio

A Heavy Metal Halloween: The Playlist

In honor of Halloween and our newest episode of Shindig Radio, I’ve compiled a mini-playlist for all you Halloween headbangers.

I even added a couple extra songs not featured on the show, just to spice up the bash.

Trick or treat…muthafuckas!

 

Audio

Halloween

TRACK #240:

Halloween by 220 Volt

It’s Halloween again, gang!

Now, that should earn everyone hangin’ around here a new Halloween song. But the last time I checked, I noticed we completely flaked on our end on the Halloween last year.

We did deliver Acid Witch’s October 31st, so we didn’t completely abandon ya’ll. But, we didn’t make good with a new Halloween song, at least not one called Halloween, anyway.

So we’re making doubly sure we got you covered this year.

For our 2019 Halloween induction of a Halloween song, we figured we’d dig right into our Heavy Metal Halloween line-up and pull out an exclusive.

And what better exclusive than the secret song I stumbled upon the night before we recorded that episode – 220 Volt’s 1985 rockin’ Metaller, Halloween!

Ya know, that Swedish metal band that formed after an unfortunate mini-golf accident? I don’t know about you guys, but to me, nothing spells evil metal like minor hand injuries at the Dragon Castle on hole 7.

And since we had such a great time listening to all of Busta Rhymes’ nonsense from Halloween: Resurrection, and I have a habit of trickin’ out these tracks with Halloween franchise samples, we Busta Busted all over this one for yinz.

Happy Halloween everybody! Thanks for coming along for the ride. We’ll see ya’ll again on Oct. 1st, 2020 sharp!

Until then, stayed tuned for more episodes of Shindig Radio and definitely stay spooky!

Oh, and here’s that weird picture we referenced during the show. I think Matt was right, this singer definitely looks like a labradoodle.

 

Audio

Episode 11: A Heavy Metal Halloween

It’s Halloween again and Shindig Radio is celebrating its reason for your season: Halloween Songs.

But not just any Halloween Songs. These are songs exclusively called Halloween and performed exclusively by weird 80’s metal bands.

It’s a Heavy Metal Halloween!

Matt Mastrella returns to join Graham C. Schofield and Mikey Rotella on a Halloween journey through Heavy Metal history with 10 of the hardest, most head bangin’ Halloween hits the world has ever heard!

 

 

Audio

Realive Radio Ep. 2: It’s Totally Not At All A Halloween Show

Back before podcasts were filled with commercials for MeUndies and boxes filled with mysterious bullshit, your Shindig Radio pals Graham C. Schofield, Mikey Rotella and myself had a different kind of radio show,…filled with a different kind of dumb commercials.

That show was called Realive Radio, and this evening marks the 10 year anniversary of their not so Halloween Special.

To honor this occasion, we’ve created a playlist here featuring a special edition of that episode, re-cut to include all the original sound clips as originally recorded and spliced into Duke’s live phone recording for the maximum audio quality allowed by our shitty equipment.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed making it, and have enjoyed remembering it these last 10 years. If you’d care to know more about Realive Radio, the overly verbose story of how it came to be can be found below this playlist.

Thanks for listening, and Happy Halloween. Punch yeah!

Is it Re-Alive or Real Live?

The Brief True Story of a Real Fake Show

Back in 2008, Mikey Rotella and myself were writing for a fledgling horror website called Horrornews.net. We penned a few horror reviews, a couple articles and I had a daily column highlighting videos from around the web.

Soon, we were asked by the owners of the site if we would like to cohost a new kind of internet radio show they wanted to start called a “podcast.” Naturally, we agreed.

Whomever was supposed to “produce” this program dropped out in the 11th hour and I jumped in to man the ship, so to speak. With that, I came became familiar with a platform called Blog Talk Radio.

Essentially, hosts and guests would call an assigned number at a scheduled time and the service would connect the calls together a record the session. It would then process and post the result on its servers, and like that, you had a podcast ready for streaming.

The backend of this platform, where the admin could manage all the incoming calls, also had a rudimentary sound board, where you could upload your own sound clips to play during the show. I assume this would be used for bumper music and prerecorded interviews and such.

Naturally, as any of you Shindig Radio listeners may have guessed, I had other ideas.

I quickly tapped my buddy Graham C. Schofield to record sound clips of an announcer type character introducing us and making fun of Mikey. I uploaded these sounds on the sly and played them during the program and we all had a good laugh.

Our tenure as the cohost of Horrornews.net’s Podcast From Hell, however, was relatively short lived. I believe we only recorded 4 episodes over a span of a few months. It had something to do with us being goofballs and not caring about recent and upcoming horror movies. Also, Mikey told a physic lady named Mama Lisa her name sounded like a pizzeria and that upset our other cohost. Didn’t upset Mama Lisa mind you, just our cohost. But the damage was done.

However, I was strangely intrigued by this soundboard style call-in Radio platform. So much untapped potential. One could call in and interact with big chunks of prerecorded material and put on an entire stage-play-style radio program and the site would take care of the rest. And like that Realive Radio was born.

Mikey, Graham and myself set about recording different characters and bits that would be mixed with fake commercials and movie trailers and radio buffoonery. I would call-in and play these sound clips and it would give the appearance that you were listening to a real radio show, or as much as you could give that impression through a recorded phone call.

As you might imagine, it was fairly labor intensive, and we only produced 4 episodes of the program over the course of 2 years. But it was a fun and creative time we all really enjoyed.

10 years ago today, on October 25th, 2009, we released a “Halloween” episode of Realive Radio. The running gag was, that since it was recorded well before October and had nothing to do with Halloween, our announcer named G-Spot was desperately attempting to inject some Halloween cheer into the proceedings, with minimal success.

For its 10 anniversary, I thought since it’s kind of a Halloween special, I’d make this episode available to fans of Halloween Shindig and Shindig Radio, so they might hear 10 year younger versions of their podcast pals hamming it up.

As stated above, we hope that you enjoy this old relic of podcast infancy and that, much like G-Spot intended, it fills your Halloween with spooky delight.

Halloween Shindig Presents: Realive Radio Ep. 2: It’s Totally Not At All A Halloween Show.

 

Audio

Halloween Night

TRACK #189:

Halloween Night by Halloween

Several years ago when Halloween made their Shindig debut on Halloween with their song Halloween, we immediately bestowed upon them All-Star status. This was very premature, because at that point, it was their only contribution.

I knew then that they would have multiple appearances. I have an auxiliary playlist called The Shindig Bullpen for all the planned additions that have yet to make their way onto the blog. They’re all there, but the move was still premature.

Tonight’s track, however, finally makes Halloween The Shindig All-Stars they were born to be.

Since they already had a song called Halloween, I’m sure they were pretty disappointed. Now, they probably could have gone the Danzig route and just made a song called Halloween II, but Halloween opted to tag the word “Night” on there, and call it a day. It’s a solid move.

And since we were just dealing with Dr. Crowley and his Anti-Halloween Machine, we thought we’d check in with Angela Harris, who’s own Anti-Halloween machine, a religious group called HARVEST, is responsible for all the mayhem in 2014’s nostalgia stuffed The WNUF Halloween Special.

Her alarmist petitions seem particularly in contrast to Halloween’s somewhat reassuring song, where they tell you everything’s all right, Halloween’s just a fun night out at the Heavy Metal Horror Show. Nothing to worry about here.

Mrs. Harris, well, she doesn’t exactly concur.

Here’s Halloween, once again singing about Halloween and taking their rightful place on the Shindig All-Star team, with Halloween Night.

 

Audio

Halloween

TRACK #180:

Halloween by Ostrogoth

No Halloween on Halloween Shindig would be complete without a Halloween Song called Halloween. This year it’s from Belgian metalers Ostrogoth.

If you’ve never heard of them, don’t feel down, I’m pretty sure unless you were a serious hesher in 1985, you probably haven’t. And if they didn’t have a song called Halloween, I probably wouldn’t either.

Wading in the dregs of 80’s euro-metal stands a band named after a sect of the East Germanic Goths, partially responsible for the fall of the Western Roman Empire! Do these guys know how to party, or what!?

Partiers or not, they know how to Halloween. And they’re Halloweening hard here with a song so spooky it even features a creepy Devil voice.

Loaded with clips from Halloween 4, cause we haven’t tapped that keg yet, and because Don LaFontaine absolutely kills on this trailer.

I’ve seen Halloween 4. I don’t much care for Halloween 4, but every time I hear Don’s voiceover, I forget how much I don’t actually care for Halloween 4 and almost throw it on.

When they wanted to provide some damage control from the consumer fallout of Halloween III…they weren’t fuckin’ around.

“Ever since that night, no one…has forgotten his name…and Halloween…has never been the same.”

Happy Halloween, Weeners!