{"id":676,"date":"2007-10-31T11:12:20","date_gmt":"2007-10-31T18:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/?p=676"},"modified":"2008-06-21T18:16:44","modified_gmt":"2008-06-22T01:16:44","slug":"for-your-halloween-listening-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/?p=676","title":{"rendered":"For Your Halloween Listening Pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

NPR<\/a> had a cute little article about Halloween music this morning, and included some samples of “classic” Halloween-themed music\u2014or at least music that refers to or is centered around the themes of Halloween, if that’s a useful distinction. I thought I would take up the mantle and offer a couple of my favorite examples of Halloween-themed music from my own library.<\/p>\n

The first is the song “Death Path<\/a>” (link goes to an MP3) by the 90’s Agro-Industrial band Mussolini Headkick. (“Agro” as in “Aggravated”, not “Agricultural”; they’re not farmers….as far as I know.) This song is some of the ultimate<\/em> haunted house music, in my opinion. Less an orchestral composition than a soundscape (and pretty much completely sample-derived), it is almost unbearably creepy to me. Try playing it on a good set of surround speakers in a pitch-black room, if you want the full effect.<\/p>\n

Next is “Halloween<\/a>” by iconic Punk band The Dead Kennedys (another MP3). This is more in the “about Halloween” idiom, and is just a great example of what made DK so special amongst the screaming troglodytes of the Punk scene. The song is about wearing a mask every day of your life, and only taking it off one day a year to show your real self:<\/p>\n

You go to work today,
\nYou’ll go to work tomorrow,
\nShitfaced tonight,
\nYou’ll brag about it for months,
\n‘Remember what I did, remember what I was, back on Halloween?’<\/em><\/p>\n

But what’s in between?
\nWhere are your ideas?
\nYou sit around and dream
\nFor next Halloween.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why not every day, are you so afraid, ‘What will people say?’
\nWhy not every day, are you so afraid, ‘What will people say?’
\nAfter Halloween.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of my very favorite memories revolves around this song. Margaret and I were in the local Fred Meyer<\/a> looking for Halloween candy one year. Someone had decided to set up a boom box on a high shelf over the Halloween decorations, and had obviously told one of the low-ranking employees to find a Halloweeny-type song and record it onto a looped cassette. The anonymous stock-monkey had chosen The Dead Kennedys’ “Halloween”.<\/p>\n

I have almost never been happier than I was standing in the aisle of a Fred Meyer listening to lead singer Jello Biafra repeatedly exhort the dead-eyed shoppers to “take your social regulations and shove ’em up your ass!<\/em>”<\/p>\n

\"Halloween<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NPR had a cute little article about Halloween music this morning, and included some samples of “classic” Halloween-themed music\u2014or at least music that refers to or is centered around the themes of Halloween, if that’s a useful distinction. I thought I would take up the mantle and offer a couple of my favorite examples of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roominations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.uncle-andrew.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}