Halloween Mixmania
Happy Halloween everyone! I meant to dig up another old Halloween costume photo of my brother and me again this year, but it slipped my mind last time I was home. Maybe next year.
So I signed up for Mixmania again along with my brother and sister-in-law. This month's theme was "Scared," which I thought would give me some trouble, but it actually turned out to be a pretty fun disc to put together. I hope the recipient received it okay - I never heard anything from my match for last month's mix and I'm not sure what went wrong there. Anyway, here's what I came up with this time!
1. Goblin/Zombie Nation, "Zombi/Kernkraft 400 (Osymyso Remix)"
This one is from the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack, which was never released in the U.S. You can thank my brother for snagging a copy when he came to visit me in Edinburgh. If you haven't seen the movie, you MUST!
2. Nick Cave, "Red Right Hand"
One of the first tracks I thought of when I read this month's theme. Creeeeepy.
3. Theme from The Elephant Man
Sad-spooky carnival music from a movie that always makes me cry. This track received the most vocal response when I played this mix in the car on the way to the Elvis show (from Jen: "I can see the scary CLOWNS coming!").
4. Sufjan Stevens, "They are Night Zombies!! They are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!"
Did they teach you about those zombies at church, Soof? I tend to get bored whenever I try to listen to a whole Sufjan album, but there are a bunch of tracks I like when they come up singly on my iPod's shuffle setting. This is one of them. From Come On Feel the Illinoise.
5. The Raveonettes, "Attack of the Ghost Riders"
A ghost song from everyone's favorite Danish surf-rock band named after a Buddy Holly song.
6. Oingo Boingo, Dead Man's Party
I thought this was too obvious and considered omitting it, but then my two test subjects (K and Jen, see #3 above) had never heard it. Shocking! So here it is, the most Halloween song from the most Halloween band.
7. The Specials, "Ghost Town"
And Boingo's horn section fades into the Specials' horn section. Spoooooky. This one's also in Shaun of the Dead, by the by.
8. Screamin' Jay Hawkins, "I Put a Spell on You"
I remember scrolling through mp3s in WinAmp on my desktop computer on Halloween 2001, looking for something suitably festive to blast on my dorm floor. This is the only fitting thing I could find at the time.
9. A Whisper in the Noise, "Tale of Two Doves"
We saw this band open for Arab Strap. While they played, K storyboarded a movie in her mind - something involving the murder of a trapeze artist in a Russian circus, I think, shot in black and white. Later Dan bought their demo for a dollar at the CD Game Exchange in Adams Morgan. True story.
10. DeVotchKa, "This Place is Haunted"
This one's here for the title and the little kid ghost laughs.
11. They Might Be Giants, "Where Your Eyes Don't Go"
This song creeped me out when I was in middle school. Still kinda does.
12. The Pogues, "Sit Down By the Fire"
If you can decipher Shane MacGowan's words, you'll learn that this song is about all the scary evil things that come after you at night.
13. Shriekback, "Nemesis"
I heard this on KEXP shortly after I signed up for this mix game and thought it was ideal - lots of lyrics about cannibals and zombies and things.
14. Jim White, "Ghost-Town of My Brain"
Oh lovely Jim White. He's a swampy southern gothic storyteller, wears a trucker hat unironically, and puts on a great live show if you ever get a chance to see him (I saw him in an old church in Edinburgh). I love love love Jim White. This track's from No Such Place, his second album on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label.
15. The Decemberists, "Leslie Anne Levine"
This one doesn't quite seem to mesh with the rest of the mix when I listen to it, but it's a good little ghost story so I left it on. I caught the Decemberists at the 930 Club on Sunday and they were excellent! Great great great live show, one the most engaging bands I've seen. You can listen to last year's 930 Club show at All Songs Considered.
16. Tom Waits, "Don't Go Into That Barn"
To quote Ree: "Oh no!! Not scary Tom Waits!!" :) From Real Gone.
17. DeVotchKa, "Lunnaya Pogonka"
An instrumental track from one of my current favorite bands. I wasn't sure if it was spooky-sounding enough, but then I tried to imagine it as the soundtrack to a film of someone walking into an old abandoned house and I decided that yes, it IS pretty spooky, at least in that context. Plus it sounds Eastern European, and everyone knows Eastern Europe is totally scary. I mean, Dracula's from there and stuff, right?
18. The White Stripes, "Little Ghost"
And we'll end with a sweet little song from last year's Get Behind Me Satan LP.
So I signed up for Mixmania again along with my brother and sister-in-law. This month's theme was "Scared," which I thought would give me some trouble, but it actually turned out to be a pretty fun disc to put together. I hope the recipient received it okay - I never heard anything from my match for last month's mix and I'm not sure what went wrong there. Anyway, here's what I came up with this time!
1. Goblin/Zombie Nation, "Zombi/Kernkraft 400 (Osymyso Remix)"
This one is from the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack, which was never released in the U.S. You can thank my brother for snagging a copy when he came to visit me in Edinburgh. If you haven't seen the movie, you MUST!
2. Nick Cave, "Red Right Hand"
One of the first tracks I thought of when I read this month's theme. Creeeeepy.
3. Theme from The Elephant Man
Sad-spooky carnival music from a movie that always makes me cry. This track received the most vocal response when I played this mix in the car on the way to the Elvis show (from Jen: "I can see the scary CLOWNS coming!").
4. Sufjan Stevens, "They are Night Zombies!! They are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!"
Did they teach you about those zombies at church, Soof? I tend to get bored whenever I try to listen to a whole Sufjan album, but there are a bunch of tracks I like when they come up singly on my iPod's shuffle setting. This is one of them. From Come On Feel the Illinoise.
5. The Raveonettes, "Attack of the Ghost Riders"
A ghost song from everyone's favorite Danish surf-rock band named after a Buddy Holly song.
6. Oingo Boingo, Dead Man's Party
I thought this was too obvious and considered omitting it, but then my two test subjects (K and Jen, see #3 above) had never heard it. Shocking! So here it is, the most Halloween song from the most Halloween band.
7. The Specials, "Ghost Town"
And Boingo's horn section fades into the Specials' horn section. Spoooooky. This one's also in Shaun of the Dead, by the by.
8. Screamin' Jay Hawkins, "I Put a Spell on You"
I remember scrolling through mp3s in WinAmp on my desktop computer on Halloween 2001, looking for something suitably festive to blast on my dorm floor. This is the only fitting thing I could find at the time.
9. A Whisper in the Noise, "Tale of Two Doves"
We saw this band open for Arab Strap. While they played, K storyboarded a movie in her mind - something involving the murder of a trapeze artist in a Russian circus, I think, shot in black and white. Later Dan bought their demo for a dollar at the CD Game Exchange in Adams Morgan. True story.
10. DeVotchKa, "This Place is Haunted"
This one's here for the title and the little kid ghost laughs.
11. They Might Be Giants, "Where Your Eyes Don't Go"
This song creeped me out when I was in middle school. Still kinda does.
12. The Pogues, "Sit Down By the Fire"
If you can decipher Shane MacGowan's words, you'll learn that this song is about all the scary evil things that come after you at night.
13. Shriekback, "Nemesis"
I heard this on KEXP shortly after I signed up for this mix game and thought it was ideal - lots of lyrics about cannibals and zombies and things.
14. Jim White, "Ghost-Town of My Brain"
Oh lovely Jim White. He's a swampy southern gothic storyteller, wears a trucker hat unironically, and puts on a great live show if you ever get a chance to see him (I saw him in an old church in Edinburgh). I love love love Jim White. This track's from No Such Place, his second album on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label.
15. The Decemberists, "Leslie Anne Levine"
This one doesn't quite seem to mesh with the rest of the mix when I listen to it, but it's a good little ghost story so I left it on. I caught the Decemberists at the 930 Club on Sunday and they were excellent! Great great great live show, one the most engaging bands I've seen. You can listen to last year's 930 Club show at All Songs Considered.
16. Tom Waits, "Don't Go Into That Barn"
To quote Ree: "Oh no!! Not scary Tom Waits!!" :) From Real Gone.
17. DeVotchKa, "Lunnaya Pogonka"
An instrumental track from one of my current favorite bands. I wasn't sure if it was spooky-sounding enough, but then I tried to imagine it as the soundtrack to a film of someone walking into an old abandoned house and I decided that yes, it IS pretty spooky, at least in that context. Plus it sounds Eastern European, and everyone knows Eastern Europe is totally scary. I mean, Dracula's from there and stuff, right?
18. The White Stripes, "Little Ghost"
And we'll end with a sweet little song from last year's Get Behind Me Satan LP.
Labels: mixmania
posted by ekrobi at 12:13 PM
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