john carpenter

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

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

Laurie’s Theme

TRACK #179:

Laurie’s Theme by John Carpenter

As influential and essential as Alan Howarth may have ultimately been to that “Carpenter” sound, nothing proves John’s singular mastery like his score from 1978’s Halloween.

Everyone knows the iconic theme. Hell, people that haven’t even seen the movie recognize it’s repetitious, modulating sound.

However, John’s score is more than just that simple and oh-so-effective opening number. The entire sonic landscape of Halloween is synthy and unnerving, with buzzes and stabs that have become icons in and of themselves.

So we’d be remiss, particularly since our block of synthetic horror themes has bleed into Halloween, to leave out the man himself and one of his lesser heard arrangements from that classic seasonal favorite.

So, tingling your 31st spine is Shindig All-Star John Carpenter with the haunting and memorable and succinct, Laurie’s Theme.

 

Audio

Chariots of Pumpkins

TRACK #178:

Chariots of the Pumpkins by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

Speaking of perfect ways to start of an October 31st, lets move to this selection from the (unjustly) lesser-lauded Halloween 3, a film so damn Halloweeny, it practically out-Halloweens every other film in a series called Halloween. No small feat.

When John and Michael parted ways in 1978, the money guys weren’t content to just let that be the end of the Myers tale. John didn’t want any part of a sequel though, and declined to direct, being more creatively inspired to explore new stories, like The Fog. Allegedly, he only agreed to pen the script so he could recoup some money following the original, from which he claims he never saw much in the way of profit. Additionally, he co-produced the sequel and provided some scoring, no doubt assisting in that aim.

By the time the inevitable Halloween III rolled around, John finally got his wish, and they produced a Halloween-themed film, completely separate from Michael Myers. But it seems it was just a little too little, too late. Needless to say, the fans were not pleased.

However, Halloween III is superior to just about every other sequel in the rather disappointing and hum-drum franchise that is Halloween. And of the many things it has going for it, it’s score stands proudly among them.

A collaboration again between Carpenter and long-time musical partner Alan Howarth, this score honestly feels more Carpenter-esque (in my estimation) than the one they provided for Halloween 2. Perhaps Howarth is more instrumental to that sound we call “Carpenter’s” than he’s given due credit for.

This is an 80’s, synth-drenched sound that just reverberates “horror.” And if October 31st sounds like anything, Chariots of Pumpkins might be a perfect descriptor.

 

Audio

The Theme from The Fog

TRACK #172: 

The Theme from The Fog by John Carpenter

This is Stevie Wayne here, your night light, on fabulous 1340 Shindig Radio, spinning the tunes for you all October long.

Halloween is just around the corner now, and I’ve got a solid block of spooky synth songs to shake your Samhain soiree. No singin’, just the smooth buzz of oscillating vibrations to give you and your guests the shivers.

This first one goes out to the men on the Seagrass. Watch out for that fog bank you’ll say isn’t there until all of a sudden it is. It’s filled with ghost pirates, and Garfield  won’t be there to bail you out.

Unil then, keep it here on Shindig Radio, and we’ll take you right into the witching hour. 

 

Audio

Halloween Theme

TRACK #1:

Halloween Theme by The Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra

The first track on any Halloween playlist should probably be John Carpenter’s simplistic, iconic and downright horrific theme to his 1978 classic Halloween. Nothing quite sounds like Halloween the way this song does.

Call it nostalgia, call it indoctrination, call it whatever you’d like, when I hear this song I immediately think of jack-o-lanterns. That’s followed closely by children trick or treating, rounded out by some rustling leaves at 3rd, and perhaps coming in at a close 4th would be a white-masked sociopath by the name of Michael Myers.

Now, those are probably 4 of the most Halloweeny things I can think of, and they’re all elicited from just the first 3 notes of this song. For my money, that’s musical genius.

This is taken straight from the DVD, so no whack cover version, no trumped up Halloween CD nonsense, no later or slightly altered version for the other films in the series. This is the real deal, complete with the chanting trick or treaters at the end.

Black cats and goblins on Halloween night. Trick or Treat!