Many Boston bands get inspired for the musical equivalent of 'dressing up' as other bands, but The Hush Now have recorded Halloween tunes for 2 years in a row: "The Legend of Dudley Town" after the cursed CT village and last year's "Please Mephistopheles, Leave Me Alone".
It made me think of other 'scary' songs, local and otherwise.
If you didn't celebrate over the weekend, you've probably postponed your party until next weekend. That means you have time to make a Halloween mix. Or maybe you'll find this post for a future year -- if there will be one!
(I suspect this is the beginnings of a post in 360 days.)
On the local front:
Boston Band Crush's Halloween Spooktacular 2011, you can dowload songs like: "Zombie Apocalypse!" - Madame Psychosis, "You Creep Me Out" - Apple Betty, and "Haunted House" - The Bynars. And last year's edition had such classics as "Justin Bieber In The Haunted Graveyard" by Summer Villains.
Darling Pet Munkee is playing at the Middle East tonight, and they have some killer songs (free download) like "MONSTER S-I-Z-E MONSTERS" and "Genuine Soil From Dracula's Castle".
Some generally creepy/spooky local artists that come to mind are: Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys, Humanwine, Ian Adams, Black Fortress Of Opium, What Time is it Mr Fox?, Doctor Gasp, The Coffin Lids, and Box Five just toured on their Poe project. (That guy is so Raven...)
More local Halloween songs can be found on WFNX's Boston Accents playlist from last night and last year.
Some obvious tracks:
"Thriller" - Michael JacksonThe less obvious tier:
"The Time Warp" - Rocky Horror Picture Show
"Dead Man's Party" - Oingo Boingo
"Pet Semetary" - The Ramones
"Monster Mash" - Bobby Pickett (Somerville, MA native)
"I Put a Spell on You" - Screaming Jay Hawkins
"Werewolves of London" - Warren Zevon
"Superstition" - Stevie Wonder
"Welcome to My Nightmare" - Alice Cooper
"Don't Fear the Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult
"Frankenstein" - Edgar Winter Group
"(Every Day Is) Halloween" - MinistryNon-Halloween tunes, but scary in their way...
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" - Bauhaus
"Red Right Hand" - Nick Cave
"Devil In My Car" - The B-52s
"Hell" - The Squirrel Nut Zippers
"People Are Strange" - The Doors
"Halloween" - different songs by Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Sonic Youth, Siouxsie & The Banshees
"I Was A Teenage Werewolf" - The Cramps
"Werewolf" - Southern Culture on the Skids
"This Is Halloween" - The Nightmare Before Christmas
"Zombie Graveyard Party" - Be Your Own Pet
"Somebody's Watching Me" - Rockwell
"The Munsters Theme" - Los Straitjackets
"Rapture" - Blondie
"Graveyard Girlfriend" - Groovie Ghoulies
"Gargoyles Over Copenhagen" - Nekromantix
Anything by Roky Erickson ("I Walked With a Zombie", "Two-Headed Dog", "Creature with the Atomic Brain")
"War Pigs" - Black Sabbath
"Do You Take This Man" - Diamanda Galas
"The Man in the Long Black Coat" - Bob Dylan
"Earth Died Screaming" - Tom Waits ('Bone Machine' album in general)
"The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead" - XTC
"In the Court of the Crimson King" - King Crimson