shindig all-stars

Audio

The Black Widow

TRACK #82:

The Black Widow by Alice Cooper

Vincent Price is awesome. I’m not really sure how else to put it. I could use words like “extraordinary,” or “singular,” or even “eminent,” but they all just sound like “awesome” to me.

Another, even more appropriate word, might be “iconic.” Having starred in over 40 genre pictures, Mr. Price, though not exclusive to horror (having appeared in almost 200 film and television productions) has left his indelible mark on the world of the macabre.

Simply anchoring some of my all-time favorite horror films, including The House on Haunted Hill, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Vincent Price already equals horror. And that’s not even mentioning The Tingler, The Raven, Last Man on Earth, House of Wax, A Comedy of Terrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, Twice Told Tales, Witchfinder General orThe Fly.

You get the idea.

Even outside the sphere of horror, Price still owns my loyalty, adding his distinctive flare to Egghead, one of my favorite villains from one of my favorite TV shows ever, the old Batman series.

Again, that’s not even to speak of his radio work, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, his Sears-Roebuck sponsored Fine Art Collection, The Great Mouse Detective, Laura, Dead Heat, Edward Scissorhands, and this absolutely insane album of him talking about witchcraft and the demons. I’ll type that again just in case your breezed passed it: Vincent Price recorded a 90 minute spoken word album all about witchcraft and it’s fucking incredible.

His credits even include a stint on Hollywood Squares. Seriously?

Seriously.

So iconic is Vincent that he appears on the Shindig at least 3 times without any intervention from my sampling hand. You wanna spook up a track, you tapped Vincent for that little extra something sinister. Never a bad decision.

The first example of this is from none other than Alice Cooper, no stranger to the sinister himself. Price leads in Track 82, The Black Widow from Cooper’s 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare.

As if that wasn’t enough, Price also starred in the corresponding television special which followed the album entitled Alice Cooper: The Nightmare, where he reprises this monologue, in perfect Price fashion, almost identically.

Vincent Price may have passed, but among horror fans he will live on forever, ritualistically resurrected with each push of the play button. And as for the Shindig, his extraordinarily singular and eminent voice can be heard all over it.

 

Audio

Motel Hell

TRACK #7:

Motel Hell by Blitzkid

At #7 comes a band with plenty of representation on the Shindig; perennial monster-rockers Blitzkid.

When every album’s track listing reads like a “Gory Horror Movies from the 80’s” category on Netflix, your band is kind of hard to ignore if making a Halloween playlist.

First cut from these guys? Motel Hell, which details the goings-ons of Farmer Vincent (the wonderful Rory Calhoun) as he minces up out-of-town lodgers at his Motel Hello (its neon sign, of course, has a blown out O.)

He stores and cultivates these lodgers in a garden out back, like some kind of nightmarish cabbage patch, then uses their bodies to make assorted meat products for the locals, whom all love Farmer Vincent’s treats.

Motel Hell is a great piece of early 80’s horror that’s funny, sometimes startling and always a blast to watch. Any movie where a dude wearing a pig’s head gets into a chainsaw fight with another dude that also has a chainsaw is some must-see shit. In fact, if you haven’t seen Motel Hell, you should,…right now.

 

Audio

Shockmonster Stomp

Track #6:

Shockmonster Stomp by The Ghastly Ones

Since we’re already stomping, let’s stomp some more with a little help from The Ghastly Ones, a monster surf outfit from Van Nuys, California.

I love surf music, but on the whole it doesn’t lend itself terribly well to Halloween, unless you’re talking about The Ghastly Ones that is; oozing as they are with model kit and Shock! Theater imagery. Their drummer, Norman Cabrera, is even a special FX artist, and they were originally released on Rob Zombie’s Zombie-A-Go-Go label. Now that’s all pretty Halloween if you ask me.

And if that’s not enough, this track in particular amps up the Halloweeniness a couple notches with its harpsichord and theremin sounds; all the spookiness to take our Shindig in decidedly ghastly direction. Keep stompin’!

 

Audio

The Sinister Stomp

TRACK #5:

The Sinister Stomp by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

Alright, so we got a theme, a bumper, a genuine Halloween song, and a track from a horror movie; sounds to me like it’s time for a good ole fashion monster song.

While The Monster Mash is probably the likely choice, we’ve got some time before cracking that chestnut. However, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and his Crypt Kickers are gonna get some early respect here just the same. From The Original Monster Mash album (a fun Holiday album all around. Hell, there’s even a Christmas song on that fucker for christ’s sake,) comes The Sinister Stomp.

I’m not exactly sure what the hell Yanush is suppose to be (a zombie, a ghoul?) but he’s definitely the focal point of this song, having tripped Boris one night in a graveyard causing him to invent the titular dance, which I believe just involves Boris repeatedly stomping his heal into this thing’s back. An act which somehow manages to keeps him alive, yet also makes him a more efficient employee apparently. Oh, and run.

Yeah, the logic isn’t the easiest to follow, but it’s pretty damn Halloweeny all the same, featuring the usual ghouls from Igor to Frankie, plus it’s got a catchy Runaround Sue style beat, which I enjoy a great deal.

So, c’mon, do The Sinister Stomp. It’s good for the soul.

 

 

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!