So much for my "no more themed mixes" rule - you didn't really expect I'd be able to resist doing one for Halloween, did you?
See, there's so many Halloween/scary/monsters linked songs (and there's a clue right there as to the identity of one that features this week), I could have made this one at least three times as long, had I been so inclined. But I managed to resist temptaion, and kept it to (just over an hour) - the trimmed ones can make their appearances next year. Or the year after.
Truth be told, I'm not really a fan of Halloween. The only good thing about it, as far as I can see, is that I can legitimately keep my curtains closed and refuse to answer the door all weekend.
Anyway, here we go with what I hope is not an entirely predictable mix for you all to enjoy whilst stuffing your faces full of the candy you decided not to give to Trick or Treaters, or whilst your cleaning the smashed eggs off your front door having ignored them. I'd recommend turning the lights off, drawing the curtains, lighting some candles and turning it up loud:
Halloween Night Music Club
And here's your track-listing and sleeve notes. Look away now if you like surprises!
- John Murphy - In The House - In A Heartbeat
Or, the super spooky music from one of the best British horror movies from the last 20 years: Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. It beautifully encaspulates the peace and silence which pre-empts all the blood and gore and zombies in a loudQUIETloud kinda way. I don't profess to be an expert of either band, but it does make me think of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
In case you've never seen it, here's the trailer, which includes some of those iconic deserted London scenes which were breath-taking at the time:
2. Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
From John to Pete Murphy. I could have filled this mix with goth classics, but in the end plumped for just the one. And if I'm lucky, I'll have squeezed this in just before SWC completes his wonderfully entertaining countdown of the Top 20 Goth records over at No Badger Required and, since it hasn't featured yet, crowns this as #1.
This is as intense and moody as hell, slowly building from the intricate drum patterns which sound like flapping bats' wings, through to the booming darkness of the lyrics: it's one heck of a record.
Mr Lugosi was unavailable for comment. Because he's dead.
3. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
From the album with the same name, the first after his notoriously influential, but commercially unsuccesful, Berlin trilogy. Apparently, this return to a more commerical sound (!) was inspired by his loathing of Gary Numan, who was viewed as a Bowie rip-off.
4. The Automatic - Monster
A remix of this almost appeared in a recent Friday Night mix, but got dropped at the last minute. Which is lucky, because it's ideal for this one.
I've never actually read an interview with this Cardiff based band to confirm it - Wiki says the lyrics were "...a metaphor for the monster that comes out when people are intoxicated..." - but I definitely heard that it was about when all the boys from the Valleys would descend on the capital city of a Saturday night and cause absolute mayhem.
5. Peaches - Trick or Treat
Extraordinarily for a record by Peaches, I don't think this contains any actual swears. Sure, there's innuendo a-plenty - at least that's what I assume her mention of never going to bed without a piece of raw meat is, anyway. Probably best I slap one of these on it anyway:
6. Radiohead - Bodysnatchers
Included for two reasons: i) when I was a kid, the movie Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (the remake, with Donald Sutherland) absolutely scared the crap out of me, and ii) because it's on of the any tunes where Thom Yorke sounds in tortured pain, which seems appropriate somehow.
7. Miley Cyrus - I Get So Scared
If you've not yet succumbed to the charms of Miss Cyrus, then may I direct you to the album this is lifted from, Мiley Cyrus And Her Dead Petz, described in various quarters as experimental, psychedelic, psychedelic pop and space pop, which will come as less of a surprise when you learn that Wayne Coyne and the boys from The Flaming Lips were massive influences on the creative process and feature on the record too. Seriously: check it out. It absolutly changed my perception of her.
Anyway, there's no need to be scared, Miley; here's....
8. Bobby ''Boris'' Picket & The Crypt Kickers - Monster Mash
Predictable? You betcha. It's still great though, 50 years since it was first released.
9. Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches
I don't have much to say about this one, other than it's obvious why it's here and it sounds like...well, like Bloc Party.
Actually, I would say that hunting for witches sounds like a very bad idea indeed. I mean, what are you going to do if you catch one? End up in a disappointing sitcom?
Yes, you.
10. Queens Of The Stone Age - Burn The Witch
Ah yes, that's always an option, I guess.
11. Spinnerette - All Babes Are Wolves
The placing of this, by the former Mrs Josh Homme, is entirely coincidental. Honest. It does provide a rather nice segue into tunes about wolves, mind. Plus, it's a terrific record, in a quite-a-bit-like-Hole kinda way, which was largely and unjustly mostly overlooked when it was released in 2009 and deserves to be revisited.
12. TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
Neil! Neil! I remembered it all by myself!
13. Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon
Another from the 'entirely predictable/I couldn't resist' pile.
Included for two reasons: i) I don't think, and I'm open to correction, any other single to make the UK chart has the word spewing in it; I'm certain no others have He finds his heaven spewing from the mouth of hell, and ii) these are preceded by perhaps the most ludicrously misplaced Ooh yeah baby! ever committed to vinyl.
Genius, in a bat-biting, ant-snorting kind of way.
14. Super Furry Animals - Let the Wolves Howl at the Moon
Time for a breather before the glorious finale, and it seemed appropriate to follow up a record where the lead singer dressed up as a werewolf (a furry animal, no less) on the cover of Bark at the Moon, with a song by the Super Furry Animals, who aren't adverse to dressing up as big furry animals, singing about how we should just let Ozzy get on with it. Sort of.
15. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Not just the last record from the 'entirely predictable/I couldn't resist' pile, but the last record in this mix.
And I need say no more about it than this: magnificent.
Oh, and: more soon.
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