All Hallows Eve Mix V.

Yeah, I know, it’s late, but it’s been even more busy this Halloween. I’m not gonna write much, because I have to get to work on a new last minute costume idea, but here’s All Hallows Eve Mix V. Happy Halloween, ghouls.

All Hallows Eve Mix V.  (zip file) (download)

1. Satan’s Pilgrims – Gravewalk

2. Reverend Horton Heat – Devil’s Chasing Me

3. Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare

4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance

5. The Legendary Invisible Men – Spooks Night Out

6. Round Robin – I’m The Wolf Man

7. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You(Ball & Chain version)

8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand

9. Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me

10. 45 Grave – Phantoms

11. Deadbolt – Psychic Voodoo Doll

12. Jack And Jim – Midnight Monster Hop

13. Chuck Berry – Downbound Train

14. The Black Keys – Howlin’ For You

15. Fun Boy Three – The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)

16. Sam The Sham – Little Red Riding Hood

17. Gnarls Barkley – The Boogie Monster

18. Los Straitjackets – “The Munsters” Theme

19. The Nomads – Where The Wolf Bane Blooms

It’s Halloween. Here’s All Hallows Eve Mix IV.

So, it’s been forever since I posted on here.

But, I’m not going to miss out on Halloween. For the last couple of years, as soon as my personal harbingers of the season, The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror Comic Book and Halloween Oreo’s appear, I start working on my new mix and the air is thick with Halloween music. It usually comes down to the wire, because it’s just another thing to do in October, not to mention working on a costume, but it’s always worth it. So, enough talk, here it is for you. Dress up like a ghoul, sit back, put on All Hallow’s Eve Mix IV, and stuff you mouf’ with candy or orange-creme filled Oreo’s like all good(or is that evil?) Halloween kids do.

(I’m reloading all past mixes up here, too, if you don’t already have them, so check out my old posts, too…)

All Hallow’s Eve Mix IV – From Beyond the Grave  (zip file) (download)

Tracklisting:

1. Phantom Five – Graveyard

2. Mors Ontologica – Vampires In My Neighborhood

Can’t find a video of this one, but you must go hear it here, now.

Yes, now.

3. B-52′s – Devil In My Car

4. Violent Femmes – Werewolf(Michael Hurley cover)

So, apparently Cat Power’s “Werewolf” is a Michael Hurley song, who she has covered a total of three times now.

5. Dave Gardner – Mad Witch

6. The Fuzztones – She’s Wicked

7. Misfits – Die, Die My Darling

8. Talking Heads – Psycho Killer

9. Kip Tyler – She’s My Witch

-An awesome song, used perfectly in the 2007 remake of Wizard of Gore. You can see it in this clip right here, but yeah, this is a horror/slasher film, and NOT suitable for work AT ALL(or kids). So, here’s just the song:

10. Dana Dane – Nightmares

11. The Cramps – Human Fly

“Human Fly” (plus you get a bonus, “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”):

12. Queens of the Stone Age – Burn the Witch

13. Misfits – Night of the Living Dead

14. 45 Grave – Evil

15. Trailer Bride – Graveyard

16. Messer Chups – Vincent Price Bible

17. Bert Convoy – The Monster Hop

18. The Novas – The Crusher

Not really Halloween, but it just fits so good…

19. Roky Erickson – Night of the Vampire(acoustic Scar Stuff version)

20. Zombie Zombie – Halloween Main Theme

All Hallow’s Eve Mix III. (where I remember some Halloween Hip-Hop, too.)

You get two mixes again this year. You lucky bastards.

All Hallow’s Eve Mix III. – Revenge… of the Monster’s Bride! (zip file) (download)

Tracklisting:

1. George Barnes – Spooky

2. Credence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising

3. Marilyn Manson – This is Halloween

4. Screaming Jay Hawkin’s – I Hear Voices

5. The Kinks – Wicked Annabella

6. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Then She Bit Me

7. The Smiths – Pretty Girls Make Graves

8. The Dust Brothers – The X-Files Theme

9. Misfits – Ghoul’s Night Out

10. Kay Starr – Tale of the Headless Horseman’

11. MF Doom – Hey!

Scooby-Doo sample:

12. Queens of the Stone Age – Hangin’ Tree

13. The Dead Weather – 3 Birds

14. The Cramps – Goo Goo Muck

15. Rockwell (feat. Micheal Jackson) – Somebody’s Watching Me

16. Edgar Winter Group – Frankenstein

17. Screaming Lord Sutch – She’s Fallen in Love with the Monster Man

18. The White Stripes – In the Cold, Cold, Night

19. The Police – Behind My Camel

20. Evangelicals – Halloween Song

21. Dream Syndicate – Halloween

And here’s another…(Halloween mix that is)

Because one just wasn’t enough. I think I will try to post two a year, and maybe just spread them out a little more next time. Probably a lot of well-worn classics here, but maybe a few surprises. Suicide, some Screaming Lord Sutch, a Cat Power song, and “I’m Your Boogieman”  works when Rob Zombie covers it. Also, there’s a more obscure Blue Oyster Cult song, the less well-known original version of “Black Magic Woman,” and The Shaggs, who are kind of scary, but for all the wrong reasons… I try to stay away from the most obvious Halloween tracks, but I’ll probably slip them in at some point in later mixes. But, here it is, for your listening pleasure…

All Hallows Eve Mix 2 – The Return! (zip file) (download)

1. The Ghastly Ones – Ghastly Stomp

2. Blue Oyster Cult – Career of Evil

3. Misfits – Astro Zombies

4. Classics IV – Spooky Little Girl Like You

5. Bauhaus – Bela Lugosi’s Dead

6. The Cramps – Mystery Plane

7. Fleetwood Mac – Black Magic Woman

8. Screaming Lord Sutch – Dracula’s Daughter

9. Rob Zombie – I’m Your Boogieman(KC & the Sunshine Band cover)

10. The Postmarks – Every Day is Halloween

11. Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party

12. Donovan – Season of the Witch

13. Cat Power – Werewolf

14. Roky Erickson – Burn the Flames

15. Violent Femmes – Country Death Song

16. Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting(The Vampire Song)

17. Suicide – Ghost Rider

18. Misfits – Skulls

19. Roky Erickson – Don’t Shake Me Lucifer

20. The Shaggs – It’s Halloween

1st Annual Halloween Mix – All Hallows Eve Mix

My local “classic rock” radio station used to play a syndicated show called “Flashback,” that would usually just serve as a nostalgic throwback for those that grew up when all that “classic” rock was coming out. It had clips from TV, movies, news, or ads that would create a cool context around the songs, sometimes with a narrative, or theme. One year as a kid, I happened to catch a Halloween themed show and it really stuck with me. I guess this was just the first time I paid attention, but I had never realized before how many songs had a Halloween-like theme. I became fans of some of those songs for life, some that I wasn’t even interested in before. Since then, I loved the idea of making a Halloween mix, but never really did it right. Years later, I got serious about it as an annual thing for a good friend of mine who I exchanged CDs with regularly. ‘Cause I love Halloween, and she would probably still be a raging Halloween fiend, even if her birthday didn’t fall around the same time as “Goth Christmas.” (As Warren Ellis calls it.) So, here’s the first, annual, All Hallow’s Eve Mix I.

(It’s a little later than I wanted to post this, but better late than never, right?)

1st Annual All Hallows Eve Mix (zip file) (download)

1. Messur Chups – Intro Monstro Crescendo

2. Redbone – The Witch Queen of New Orleans

3. Dead Kennedys – Halloween

4. Ministry – Every Day is Halloween

5. Roky Erickson – Night of the Vampire

6. Blue Oyster Cult – Godzilla

7. Ramones – Pet Sematary

8. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell On You

9. Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

10. Misfits – Return of the Fly

11. The Cramps – I Was a Teenage Werewolf

12. Bo Diddley – Bo Meets the Monster

13. Ramones – Chain Saw

14. Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell

15. Lou Reed – Halloween Parade

16. The Specials – Ghost Town

17. The Who – Boris the Spider

18. Roky Erickson – I Walked with a Zombie

19. Siouxsie and the Banshees – Halloween

20. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Walking on the Water

21. The Flaming Lips – Halloween on the Barbary Coast

22. Misfits – Braineaters

The Avett Brothers live from SXSW 2009

There was a hashtag going around twitter a while back, #lameclaimstofame, and I could have done that “I went to art school with Scott from The Avett Brothers.” Which is not to say that The Avett Brothers were lame, far from it, but that I’m sure it could seem to some like I was trying to make some kind of claim to fame because I knew someone in the band, a band that are so awesome because of their sincerity and authenticity. I can’t say that I was good friends with Scott or anything, but I did know him, and the point is that it’s really fun to see someone you once knew, even slightly, get better at what they do and become more and more well known for it, to the point of actual fame. You get a feel for how a real person becomes known publicly. And now, The Avett Brothers seem close to the kind of serious mainstream fame where it can be almost disappointing to see a thing you have a personal connection with become popular and known to people who don’t really understand, respect, and/or care about it. But I think that wherever these guys end up, I will still love seeing them kick ass. Their new album, I & Love & You comes out Tuesday(September 29th), their first major label release, on Rick Rubin‘s American label, and is produced by the man himself. You would be doing yourself a favor by picking it up.

However, the point of this post is to share some music. NPR’s All Songs Considered did a podcast a while back of their performance at South By Southwest last year and while it was, as always, a great show, the podcast was frustrating. The podcast started while they were doing the soundcheck, so you had to listen to the commentators go on for 11 minutes before you could hear any music. And to make it worse, one of the commentators had such a hard on for The Decemberists(ok, maybe understandably) who were going on next, that they spent much of that time talking about them, instead of the Avetts. So, I used my computer to cut the audio up, and make the concert more listenable. So, here it is, and if you don’t know their music, here’s videos of two of the songs they played, “Murder in the City” and “Die, Die, Die.”

Download The Avett Brothers Live at SXSW 2009 from NPR All Songs Considered (zip)

I put the NPR commentary at the end on here, in case you want to hear it, but as just the songs themselves, the show is kind of short and comes out to about 26 minutes, which is because of technical difficulties according to the NPR commentators. But you can hear more, and buy the new album, here:

http://www.myspace.com/theavettbrothers

How was the Dan Deacon show, you ask? WELL…

Watch this video for an idea of what it was like in the crowd the other night    You may not be able to see much at some points, but keep watching, the lighting will change…. and change, and change. Keep looking and you’ll see the trippy green skull later, then some crowd surfing at the end. My GOD, that’s the way to close out a summer.

(these look best when not playing choppily on youtube)

Maybe not the clearest video ever, but a great taste of what it was actually like at the performance. Earlier on, Dan Deacon had us separate into groups, and the guys and girls had a dance off. It was pretty badass seeing some Greenvillains throw down:

(Ex-)Local heroes Future Islands & Lonnie Walker both played that night, too, but my perpetually late self did not make it in time to see the former, and Future Islands didn’t have the kind of light show going on to end up with a serviceable video from my simple digital camera. I found a new love though, in Javelin, who played second. They are signed to the record label of The Talking Head‘s David Byrne, and that’s really all you need to know. On record they kind of remind me of a looser Avalanches. A little research on my part, though, and I found an awesome remix Javelin did of a Future Island‘s song, “Flicker & Flutter”, that you can hear on Javelin‘s myspace, here.

http://www.myspace.com/futureislands

http://www.myspace.com/dandeacon

and even though I missed them, you should check out:

http://www.myspace.com/lonniewalker

And in case you missed it(’cause you should not miss):

http://www.myspace.com/hotjamzofjavelin

Why you should come to Backdoor TONIGHT. Like RIGHT NOW.

Last minute as hell, but that’s the fun of being spontaneous. I made a mix of Dan Deacon who’s playing tonight at Backdoor Skatepark. So, here’s ‘Dan Deacon everyone will like’, or either ‘A good day:’

Disclaimer: These are not official Dan Deacon videos.

now to get a little more weird on you, but shortened a bit due to youtube:

& finally, now that you ‘re warmed up to the sometimes obliviously silly Dan Deacon sound:

“…Ooooh, Why won’t these bee’s leave me alone? These bee’s get me then I say Ooooohhhh…

I hate them bee’s.

….my Dad is so cool he is the coolest dad in dad school…”

About the show tonight->

The Soul of Michael Jackson (part I)

There’s an old obscure album called “The Soul of Michael Jackson,” that was an attempt to capitalize on his popularity by re-releasing old Jackson 5 and early solo songs after he left Motown & became a superstar with Off the Wall & Thriller on Epic. But it was almost hard to imagine Michael Jackson as soulful later in his life, and his weirdness even threatened to destroy any chance of his music being “cool,” at all. As much as I loved some of his music, it always bothered me that it was hard to enjoy his music without something reminding me that he was such a freak. On top of that, the popular songs were so popular, it’s hard for them to sound fresh. About a year ago, though, a friend of mine, Jason, told me about an obscure old Michael Jackson song that he found called “Maria,” that was sampled on a Ghostface Killah song.

I mean, I thought it was a woman singing at first on the sample in the Ghostface song, but even with a child singing it, ”Maria” just sounds pimp as hell, especially when the beat really kicks in about halfway through, and then picks up pace at the end. It’s so fun, I don’t even mind when Michael naively tries that throaty sexy voice, “I need you honey, you’re my sweet sunflower…(actually the part that is sampled on the Ghostface song)”

So, I started researching, and that is when I found out about the three solo albums Michael Jackson had before Off the Wall while he still was with Motown(& in the Jackson 5). More Michael Jackson stuff, with Motown production, and probably even using the criminally under-appreciated “Funk Brothers” Motown backing band? I was in. So, as meticulous as I am, I went through all the solo albums, and even found some non-album singles, and tried to make the guilt free Michael Jackson album.

EDIT: As my good friend Jason pointed out in the comments section, there were actually FOUR solo Michael Jackson albums with Motown before he put out Off The Wall & Thriller. I just can’t count that high, apparently.

As I went through later stuff, I decided that some just didn’t feel right with the old, either they were more pop than soul at that point, or it was after he gained control over his career and his eccentricies became public. In other words, it was hard to see him as soulful, and he just wasn’t as cool anymore. So, the album became a mix to, hopefully, remember Michael Jackson with soul, and nothing else.

I know that the early solo stuff is sometimes not considered “solo”, since his brothers were still a big part, and of course he was just a kid. But, then Quincy Jones was probably a big part of his best work anyway, it was his performance that made him great. And these were officially released as “Michael Jackson” songs. I didn’t include Jackson 5(or The Jacksons) songs because that would make it even more complicated(they could be their own mix themselves), and really, we all know it’s Michael that needs redeeming.

So, here is the first part of my mix, it comes out to two CDs that splits best when he changed labels. I always wanted to share it, and it bothered me when he died, that most of this work seems to be lost in obscurity. I apologize in advance for any volume differences between different songs, but I just can’t figure out anyway to fix that problem.

1. Michael Jackson – I Wanna Be Where You Are (mp3)

Start off with that classic Motown Jackson 5 pop-soul sound. If you don’t already recognize this one, after that hook about a minute in, you’ll be sold.

2. Michael Jackson – Got To Be There (mp3)

3. Michael Jackson – Maria(You Were The Only One) (mp3)

<- You already heard that one.

4. Michael Jackson – With a Child’s Heart (mp3)

A wussy Michael Jackson song that, probably because of “the Funk Brothers“, doesn’t sound weak & pitiful, just damn pretty.

5. Michael Jackson – We’ve Got a Good Thing Going (single) (mp3)

<- Motown backup rocks this song. And finally…

6. Michael Jackson – Up Again (mp3)

So, that’s a start, hope you give them a chance. I’ll try to get to some more up soon in part II. Probably some of the coolest and most fun tracks, as well as probably the most unknown.

Sick of Michael Jackson? Have some Prince… covered by The Twilight Singers.

If you prefer the OTHER pop/soul/rock giant of the 80′s, Prince, like I do, pick up the issue of SPIN out right now, cause they are doing a special issue for the 25th anniversary of Purple Rain, with a download link on their website for a tribute album of Purple Rain covers.

So the question is, of course, who gets chosen to cover “When Doves Cry?” Greg Dhulli and the Twilight Singers are one on a short list of those worthy… and they make a brooding, rocking version, too.

The Twilight Singers – When Doves Cry(mp3)