Rockula

TRACK #76:

He’s Rockula by Dean Cameron

I’m gonna wrap up this Vampire block with a Title Track of ridiculous proportions, from one of my favorite sub-genres, 80’s Monster Comedies.

Though technically released in 1990, Rockula was written and filmed in the late 80’s and has all the trappings of an 80’s Monster Comedy, and as such is filed accordingly by the Shindig.

If you’ve never seen Rockula, here’s the jist:

Ralph (played by Dean Cameron, aka Summer School’s Chainsaw) is a typically 80’s “friendly” vampire. Ralph’s got a problem though. See, 400 years ago Ralph failed to save his beloved Mona from a ham bone wielding pirate who murdered her on Halloween. After which, a terrible curse befell Ralph. He must relive this trauma ever 22 years, as Mona is reincarnated and Ralph is given another chance to prevent this tragedy. A chance which he always seems to squander.

However, in the late 80’s, Mona is resurrected as a musician, so Ralph becomes Rockula to win her heart, and maybe to keep a close eye on her to finally prevent that whole Halloween/ham bone/pirate murder thing.

Sound great? No? Well it is, and it features a couple of great tunes performed by Dean Cameron (and one by Toni “Oh Mickey” Basil, who plays Ralph’s Vampire mom.) Tunes that, of course, are featured on the Shindig.

From Rockula, performed by Rockula, it’s the triple threat, Rockula!

Trick Or Treat

TRACK #71:

Trick Or Treat by Fastway

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!

Hellraiser

TRACK #57:

Hellraiser by Motörhead

In 1993 they decided to take the previously British franchise of Hellraiser across the pond, because, Lord knows America always takes something cool and makes it cooler.

That being said, it’s certainly not the worst Cenobite installment, however it’s hardly the best, as I feel both 2 and 5 are better films. Though I have met some static for my championing of Inferno, which I still feel is one of the more interesting sequels, despite being largely devoid of Cenobites and Pinhead.

Which is the worst? God only knows. They’re up to what, 9 now? I stopped after Hellseeker to be perfectly honest, and from the shots I’ve seen of…whoever the hell that is replacing Doug Bradley, Revelations isn’t providing any….well….revelations.

But enough of my (rather unqualified) opinions of the franchise in its totality. Let’s join Lemmy and Motörhead as they rock out with that secret song at the center of the world.
Pinhead is here,…to turn up the volume.

Freaked

TRACK #55:

Freaked by Henry Rollins & Blind Idiot God

From the extra-90’s, ultra-FX-ladened, creature-feature-comedy Freaked, comes this Title Track from Henry Rollins & Blind Idiot God.

I love Freaked. What’s not to love?

Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) writes, co-directs and stars.
Randy Quaid turns up as a nutball mad-scientist.
You even got Mr. T in there as a Bearded lady.
Keanu Reeves sneaks in as the (uncredited) Dog Boy
Bobcat Goldthwait voices Sockhead.
and William Sadler plays a sleazy corporate greaseball.Not to mention…

Awesome creature FX from Steve Johnson’s XFX
More awesome FX from Screaming Mad George and company.
Some great stop motion from the Chiodo Brothers
One of the coolest title sequences ever
and this awesome spinning Randy Quaid head

Plus, it has a pretty kick-ass soundtrack. A soundtrack, I might add, that was never officially released. These puppies come stolen clean from the DVD.

If you’ve never seen Freaked, and you’re at all about creature FX, foolish 90’s comedies, or bizarre movies in general – find someone who has a copy of this, mug them, and watch it immediately.

More music and gifs from Freaked to follow this initial blast, later in the playlist. For now, enjoy these humble Shindig offerings.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

TRACK #54:

Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes by Lee Lewis

The 1978 B-Movie horror-musical-comedy-spoof turned B-movie itself, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, was probably the first movie I was able to truly appreciate for its camp value.

I saw the light, so to speak, and it began the long love affair I still have today with horribly bad films. A love affair which was nurtured to its maturity on the early days of Comedy Central through Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Here’s the silly title track for the film. A film which, if you’ve never seen, I highly recommend…you know,…if you’re into that sort of thing.

Here’s a link to the full film on youtube.

Enjoy!

and remember…

House Of 1000 Corpses

TRACK #46:

House of 1000 Corpses by Rob Zombie

Well, Lords of Salem was released this past weekend, much to chagrin of critics and the Internet as a whole, it seems. Tumblr especially appears to be awash was some pretty negative reactions.

So, now seemed as good a time as any to drop in this previously unfeatured addition to the Shindig.

Why previously unfeatured? Well, at the risk of posting negative ideas, and alienating some followers, my love for Rob Zombie extends from about White Zombie to well,…White Zombie. Of Rob’s solo and film career, I can not say I am a huge fan.

So why add it at all? Well, its a Title Track and that’s a little hard to just straight-up ignore. Plus, of all his movie this is probably the one I enjoyed the most. And this song is cool enough and certainly Halloweeny enough to enjoy a position on the playlist.

And hell, I like Rob Zombie. He taught me how awesome samples are in metal songs and pointed me toward a lot of really great movies. What I think of his ability to remake them, or steal ideas from them, is neither here nor there.

So go support Lords of Salem. It may be derivative but at least it’s not another goddamn remake.

Highway To Hell

TRACK #37:

Highway To Hell by AC/DC

It’s time for another Devilish Track, however this particular tune tows a fine line.

It’s featured in the trailer of, so is sort of a de facto title track for 1991’s Highway To Hell. However, simply naming your movie after a song and blasting it exclusively in your trailer doesn’t make that song a title track. I may love My Boyfriend’s Back, but you won’t find that song by The Angel’s on the Shindig.

No, Highway To Hell is Shindigging for a few reasons; namely – I like AC/DC, it’s a good party tune, and there was a horror film named after it. Plus, this bogus Devilish category I concocted to justify Number of The Beast (and Raining Blood, and See You In Hell...and…) And well, that’s good enough for me.

If you’re tuning into this strange, Steve Johnson FX’d horror comedy, look for a young Ben Stiller in a small role as the cook at Pluto’s, Lita Ford as a hitchhiker, and Gilbert Gottfried as Hitler! Yeah, it’s a weird movie.

Beware Of The Blob

TRACK #29:

Beware of the Blob by The Five Blobs

Sometimes in my attempt to mix things up and keep an even distribution of styles and bands, the Shindig kinda seems a bit musically schizophrenic.

So, in the spirit of cohesion, here’s the Beware Of The Blob, which I think doubles up pretty nicely with The Purple People Eater, and is even from the same year.

Much like The Dudes of Wrath (though the ridiculousness of comparing these two groups is not lost on me) The Five Blobs were assembled for the singular purpose of singing this tune, penned by the late Burt Bacharach.

Easily one of the oldest (semi) Title Tracks on the Shindig, Beware Of The Blob is also one of the more curious tunes on the playlist.

Such a fun and upbeat song for something so horrendous as The Blob is kind of alarming, and as such, a bit creepy. There’s no immediacy to their tone, almost as if you really needn’t sweat this whole indestructible and unstoppable goo-monster. Seriously gang? Its eating fucking everything, maybe a little urgency, or god forbid, terror?

Naw, they’ll just keep it light and breezy. Shit, it’s only The Blob.

TerrorVision

TRACK #22:

TerrorVision by The Fibonaccis

Before Full Moon became synonymous with “shitty movie”, Charlie Band had Empire Pictures, which produced a fair amount of good genre offerings like Re-Animator, Ghoulies, From Beyond and Prison, just to name a few.

Among them was TerrorVision, a 1986 film you can easily catch on Netflix these days and won’t be disappointed with,…supposin’ you like that sort of thing.

And that sort of thing is ridiculous (not ridiculously bad, however) horror. With Charlie Band’s name attached, we could be walking into that territory, but TerrorVision manages to be 80’s enough and fun enough to avoid such trappings and deliver a flick that doesn’t take itself at all seriously and has a good time with some silly creature and gore effects.

Plus it’s got The Phantom of Paradise’s Beef, Garret Graham as the Dad and Jon Gries as his daughter’s punked-out boyfriend named O.D., and that’s gotta be worth a viewing.

From TerrorVision comes TerrorVision, the Title Track performed by the Fibonaccis.

Shocker

TRACK #16:

Shocker by The Dudes of Wrath

Once in a while a song is not only about a horror movie, or just featured in that horror movie but it’s named after the goddamn thing too. It’s the trifecta, the hat trick, the triple threat – it’s the Title Track, and little else ever competes.

Regretfully, Title Tracks mostly appear to be a thing of the past. Maybe they seem too corny or passe to modern filmmakers. However, dig around through the 80’s and early 90’s and these fuckers are everywhere, probably more out of some ridiculous sense of cross media marketing than any real attempt to make something awesome,…unless your talking about today’s Title Track, Shocker.

Whatever your opinion of Shocker (its definitely not Craven’s finest hour and a half) its soundtrack is out of control.

A supergroup like Voltron assembles from nowhere to rock your pumpkins off.

Paul Stanley, Desmond Child and Alice Cooper show up to sing.

Vivian Campbell and Guy Mann-Dude from Def Leppard stop by to shred.

Whitesnake’s Rudy Sarzo picks up the bass and Mötley Crüe hammer Tommy Lee keeps the beat.

Add in some backing vocals by Van Halen’s Michael Anthony and Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts and you got yourself a genuine fuckin’ supergroup to end all supergroups.

What’s more, these guys got together specifically for this soundtrack and never again. To top it all off they called themselves The Dudes of Wrath, a pun I’m not sure makes any goddamn sense, but is still pretty awesome none-the-less.

So bang your head for the dearly departed Horace Pinker, nobody may ever see him again.

Halloween Shindig

The Horror Fans Halloween Playlist

title track