Every Halloween it's time to dig up music that accentuates the holiday. Those of us with extensive Norwegian Death Metal collections simply put that catalog on repeat and blitz out for days.But for those of us whose musical tastes vary wildly, I thought I'd throw together a beautifully random list of names that would make your Halloween quite enjoyable and festive. There are literally hundreds of artists who could make this list. But it's important to set limits. Be sure to write in your own personal faves for Halloween in the space generously provided by the technicians here at Y! Music. We're all about the service!
Halloween is a time for sharing. I'll let you have my candy corn if you'll give me your peanut butter cup! (Why does that sound so…dirty?)
10) My Bloody Valentine: Sure, you could find more obvious choices like Rob Zombie or Alice Cooper or Kiss, for that matter, but not everyone likes to be hit over the head with such pandering. We get it, you're scary! I'd rather listen to Loveless at an unreasonable volume and lose what little hearing I have left. The album is like a heavily medicated maze that gets more confusing the longer you listen. I've fallen asleep to it and woken up and wondered where the hell I was. Add a black light and you will lose your mind!
9) The Black Angels: With a name derived from a Velvet Underground tune and a sound that takes us back to the days when psychedelic rock might have sounded like this had they had modern day recording effects and punk rock to reflect on, The Black Angels are the perfect creepy soundtrack for people who wish there was more sitar on records today! More cowbell? No, more sitar!
8) Venom: Considering they cut a 20-minute track called "At War With Satan" and feature tunes such as "In League With Satan," "Black Metal," "Buried Alive," "Raise the Dead," "Angel Dust" and "Welcome to Hell" in their extensive catalog and -- for good measure -- have an ugly goat head as their insignia, Venom are clearly the metallest of them all. No others need apply. Check them out! You may find them to be far more toe-tapping than you'd expect!
7) The Velvet Underground: This legendary and highly influential band on other groups who never sell many records are dropping an $82.72 six-CD box set for the debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico's 45th Anniversary on October 30, 2012. The box will feature mono and stereo versions of the album, a copy of Nico's Chelsea Girl elpee, the Sceptor Studios sessions, the Factory rehearsals and a two-disc live performance from the Valleydale Ballroom on November 4, 1966 in Columbus, Ohio. The amount of material being made available is positively scary!
6) Black Sabbath: OK, let me put the obvious bone in, as Terry Jacks might say. Black Sabbath's first few albums were as deserving as Halloween holiday fare as any music anyone could dare name. Extra points to the first self-titled album for sounding like the world was coming to an end. Which will -- eventually -- one day be correct. Party like it's the early 1970s while you still can!
5) Sunn O))): Whether playing alone or with Boris, Earth or Nurse With Wound, Sunn O))) take droning, ambient metal noise into the kind of dark places you're likely to hide your kid brother when he's being particularly annoying.
4) The Misfits: In New Jersey, everyone remembers Glenny Danzig and the Misfits and most local punks would still like to beat him up for a variety of offenses. But his punk combo's buzzy three-minute arsenic-laced pop confections are the perfect Halloween treat. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)
3) Suicide: Suicide are proof you don't need to pay a lot of musicians to make music. As a duo, had Suicide made any money, they wouldn't have had to share it with extraneous bass players and drummers. Machines don't ask for royalties. Their music, however, isn't just some free-for-all. Their Live 1977-1978 is apparently either "ruined by some idiot" or a "loud jerk," according to Amazon reviewers Smiley and Rimshot. "This could have been so good," writes Rimshot. "I enjoyed all the concerts and this moron keeps screaming throughout each set -- every song -- every break -- awful." See, leave the abrasive noise to professionals!
2) The Cramps: A government (Wikipedia doesn't say which one) killed Cramps singer Lux Interior and early guitarist Bryan Gregory out of pure fear that the band's music might make impressionable teens less likely to work for a living. The band's "psychobilly" appealed to the mentally ill, as their free concert for patients at the California State Mental Hospital in Napa caught on video clearly illustrates. The subliminal and liminal vibes the band sent out were meant to destabilize our youth. Is this something we can accept?
1) Diamanda Galas: Wikipedia says she has a three and a half octave vocal range and that her "works largely concentrate on the topics of AIDS, mental illness, despair, injustice, condemnation, and loss of dignity." Hi, I'm Paul, an Amazon customer, says of her Plague Mass release, "This is garbage." That's enough to keep me interested. What would it take to get you to listen to her music today?