Scream Until You Like It

TRACK #277:

Scream Until You Like It by W.A.S.P.

I’m not sure really which way the Ghoulies winds are blowing these days. I’m not out there on the streets catching the general consensus regarding a 30 year old rubber monster franchise no one with real concerns has actual time to give a shit about.

A quick, but not completely unrelated sidenote: this is my cat named Ghoulie. Seen here when she was just a kitten, hangin’ out with some pumpkins back before this website existed. She didn’t come out of a toilet or anything, but we did find her in a bush. And I’m sure someone pissed in that bush at some point, so there’s that.

Anyway, back to the real, but still fake, Ghoulies.

So yeah, I dunno how people feel about this shit, but if you ask me, I’m a Ghoulies 2 guy all day long.

Now, I would never suggest Ghoulies is high drama. It’s plenty silly. But it’s not quite silly enough, given the context. It takes itself just a tad too seriously for a movie with little monsters raising hell.

On the other hand, Ghoulies III is almost too silly. It’s fun and all, and I like seeing the Ghoulies in a cliched College romp, complete with threats of expulsion, panty raids and full scenes of Kevin McCarthy arguing with rubber monsters. But the concept is taken to its goofy extreme.

Ghoulies IV? That one’s just of a mess of a thing, really. It barely even feels like a Ghoulies movie for the most part.

Ah, but Ghoulies 2? Now, that’s silly in the best and most appropriate way.

Additionally, Buechler’s Ghoulie puppets are a definite improvement the 2nd time around. They look good in part 3 also, but I think I like their look best in part 2.

Plus, you get Royal Dano, genre vet Phil Fondacaro, and that guy from Dazed and Confused that never seems to be in enough shit.

Then they throw all of that into a carnival featuring an animatronic monster filled house of horrors called Satan’s Den? C’mon, what better locale for a movie about demonic little puppet monsters? They tie a guy to a pit and pendulum in front of a roomful of excited children that think its a gag. It’s great. What more do you want?

Well, how bout some rockin 80’s hair metal?

No problem.

Compliments of Blackie Lawless and the W.A.S.P. gang again, here’s Scream Until You Like It.

Where are my tunes!?

Interesting side note, Halloween fans: I just noticed while rewatching Shindig favorite Trick Or Treat, that this is the song Nuke fires up on that fine fine Rocktober morning. Now, I don’t know if everyone already knew this, but I’ve seen that movie I don’t even know how many times and that’s the first goddamn time I ever noticed. Granted, I happened to be editing something for the show using a clip from the movie, and had my headphones on. Perhaps that made the difference. But yeah, Scream Until You Like It can boast being featured in both Ghoulies 2 and Trick Or Fuckin’ Treat?

I might just need to update that Super Soundtrack…

The Haunted House of Rock: Mini-Playlist

Ok. So, now that I do have a record player, I can finally spin my previously only decorative copy of Whodini’s 12″ 45 for The Haunted House of Rock.

What does that mean for you, dear readers? Why a mini-playlist, of course!

Here, for your listening pleasure, are the 4 different versions of The Haunted House of Rock on offer from that single, including the exceedingly spooked-out Vocoder version.

For the uninitiated, a Vocoder is something you’re familiar with even if you aren’t familiar with the term.

Developed throughout the ’30s by Homer Dudley for Bell Labs, it was first unleashed to the public at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.

It’s essentially a device that synthesizes human speech. It analyzes the source (your voice) and assigns different parts of that signal to different frequency bands. On the other side, a a series of band-pass filter reproduces those frequencies and, with the help of an envelope follower, creates a robotic facsimile of your voice.

Initially, it was intended to reduce the bandwidth of vocal information for transmission over long distances. Problem was, it kind of sucked at reproducing the human voice convincingly. Too creepy.

Since that sort of thing never stops the United States Military, they put it to use during WWII to encrypt voice messages. See, without the proper frequency band information on the other end, the enemy could not decode that messages. Pretty neat.

However, thanks to several industrious souls, the vocoder soon found its way into the hands of musicians. Not the least of those souls were legendary synth builder Bob Moog and equally legendary synth user Wendy Carlos.

The musical incarnation works a bit differently, but it uses the same principle. Your voice is analyzed and then reproduced by the band-pass filters, but in this case, a “carrier” is sent through that filter as well, like the notes of a synthesizer. This allows you to alter the pitch of that robotic voice and create something altogether more interesting and musical.

Think Earth Wind and Fire’s Let’s Groove Tonight, Michael Jackson’s PYT, Daft Punks Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, or (the ultimate example, if you ask me) the evil Decepticon Soundwave on the Transformers cartoon.

Used abusively throughout the 80’s by all all different genres, its has the unmistakable sound of a decade. Here, in modulated grandeur, Whodini asks…

Is this what you wanted?

Something funky and haunted?

To which I reply…

Yep.

Also of interest on the single is an Acapella version, which is kind of fun to hear and a Haunted Mix, which is mostly an instrumental track. There’s also a version which claims to be extended, but sounds no different to me than the version already present on Halloween Shindig.

Either way, it all adds up to the a spooky good time any fan of this song should definitely enjoy.

If you don’t wanna party, take your dead ass home!

After Midnight

TRACK #239:

After Midnight by Fastway

No movie gets championed around here quite like 1986’s Trick or Treat. And why not? It’s everything we’re on about over here. It’s a Rock ‘N Roll Horror movie that takes place around and then on Halloween. An undead rock star electrocutes an entire gymnasium of teenagers with a real electric guitar. It’s got Gene Simmons. I mean, what more do you need?

The Super Soundtrack, which I thoroughly recommend listening to the day before Halloween, features loads of songs by Fastway, including tonight’s penultimate selection of the season.

When a movie like Trick or Treat is throwing a Sweet Song at you like After Midnight, how can we ignore that?

Wake up, sleepy heads. It’s party time!

The Haunted House of Rock

TRACK #148:

The Haunted House Of Rock by Whodini

Trick Or Treat – what more can you possibly give The Shindig? Haven’t you given enough already? Surely there are no more Halloween delights under your thin candy shell.

Oh, but there is – a thick nougat center of Monster Rap awesomeness.

In between all the Fastway rocking of the Trick Or Treat soundtrack, tucked away so’s you might not even notice, is this curve-ball of horrific proportions. From 80’s Hip-Hop maestros Whodini comes one of the finest Monster Raps featured on The Shindig, The Haunted House of Rock.

Played during the Halloween Dance sequence, just before Roger turns the speakers over to Sammy Curr’s backwards metallic cassette, Whodini rocks a rhyme about the monsters and mayhem taking place at the titular haunted abode.

What is this song doing on this soundtrack? What is this song even doing in existence? I don’t have an answer to either question, but in both cases I’m sure glad it is.

Succeeding in just about every way L ovebug Starski’s Amityville fails, The Haunted House of Rock features an actual Haunted House propagated by a multitude of real ghouls with no sign of any Starship Enterprise crew members in sight.

Amityville only outshines it for a brief moment when Dracula raps. That’s pretty huge and should not be ignored. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Amityville and it’s ridiculously unhaunted tale, but Whodini delivers the goods in way Starski only aspires to and they remain the champs of the Haunted Monster Party Rap game.

The Haunted House of Rock may even be the champ of the Monster Rap game in its entirety. But it does have some stiff competition.

If you Iike your Monster Raps a bit more specific, Are You Ready For Freddy might be your speed. If you like them a bit more ridiculous, then maybe The Maniac Cop Rap is the winner. Or if you like your Monster Rappin a bit more whack, then The Monster Squad is just what the doctor ordered.

But for my money, when it comes to legitimacy, Whodini is holding it down with this old-school hip-hop horror hit and its inclusion in Trick Or Treat just ups the ante.

I saw everybody there, except you. Let’s change that this year.

Super Soundtrack: Trick or Treat (1986)

The one that started it all. This is a Super Soundtrack The Shindig has bumped for years. Upon a recent listening, we thought “Hey, we should post this. Maybe everyone that likes Trick or Treat will dig this deluxe version.” Don’t ask and you still might receive, I guess.

Trick or Treat is a special movie with a pretty special soundtrack. Not only is it a Halloween movie with a Referentially-Inclusive-Halloween-Title-Track, but it has an entire album’s worth of tunes for an almost out-of-the-box Super Soundtrack. This makes it a great choice to kick off our Super Soundtracks feature.

What’s also fun is how expository these songs are. Without being a musical or even a rock opera, this soundtrack describes almost exactly what’s happening on screen while it’s happening.

Eddie’s getting mad and ripping all his posters off his wall?

“Tear Down the walls! Tearing ‘em down!”

Eddie’s feeling so beaten down he just wants to give it all up?

“Don’t stop the fight! Don’t die now!”

Eddie’s finally getting a little revenge?

“Get tough! This boy’s had enough!”

It’s just so awesomely explicit.

Some of these songs though, provided by 80’s butt-rocker’s Fastway, barely get enough screen time. One song, Hold On to the Night (a personal favorite) only appears in the film backwards. For shame!

So we chopped, diced, sliced and spruced this Super Soundtrack to feature the entire album rearranged linearly with a ton of movie clips, plus an extra special addition that doesn’t appear on the original release!

It’s the closet thing to watching Trick or Treat without actually watching Trick or Treat, which you should also do this October.

Provided here is a quick link to download a zip version of the Trick Or Treat Super Soundtrack!

And below is an audio player for your streaming pleasure.

Happy Halloween!