Countdown to Halloween

Countdown to Halloween 2018

October 29, 2018 // 0 Comments

So we’re on Halloween vacation this week, and as such aren’t really around to deliver the usual long-winded enthusiasm. So instead, we’re just going to direct you over to our social media, where we’ve been sort of unofficially participating in the annual Countdown to Halloween with a new comics-related Halloween post every day. Usually, it’s just a piece of artwork, but sometimes there’s a little story to go with it. Somewhere in there, we even put up the [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 31: Back to Zach

October 31, 2015 // 0 Comments

Aaaaaaannnddd… We made it! It’s Halloween! And this year, I thought we’d finish the mixtape the same way we started it: with a little something from Zacherley the Cool Ghoul. I’ve talked about Zach at length before, so I won’t go into it all again. And besides… I’m sure we’ve all got more important things to do today. Costumes to don, children to kill — er, I mean… lovely Halloween urchins to give razorblade apples — dammit! [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 30: Werewolf!

October 30, 2015 // 0 Comments

Not much to say here. Southern Culture on the Skids is one of my all-time favorite bands. Southern-fried rock and surf that never loses sight of its sense of humor, even when it’s delving into horror. Their all-spooky, all-the-time album Zombified is the go-to for SCOTS’ contributions to the world of Halloweenie music, but tonight I’m sharing a tune only available (as far as I know) on the spooky music compilation album Halloween Hootenanny: “Werewolf.” Enjoy! [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 29: Yig Snake Daddy

October 29, 2015 // 0 Comments

Dipping back into the HP Lovecraft bucket for tonight’s entry in the Halloween mixtape. We’re also revisiting Yig, this time in a form a bit more in keeping with the original story. Well… I DID say “a bit.” That, as you can probably tell, is the cover for Cthulhu Strikes Back, what may have been the first proper full-length album from the Lovecraft-influenced rock band Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. They take their name from a line in Lovecraft’s story [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 28: Marianne’s Knife

October 28, 2015 // 0 Comments

Every so often, when I was growing up, I’d see “Mack the Knife” on a compilation of Halloween music and, only being familiar with the Bobby Darin version (and only passingly familiar with that), I wondered why. Then I discovered The Threepenny Opera. Written by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in 1928, The Threepenny Opera is a socialist farce set in the less glamorous parts of Victorian London. Its hero (or antihero, if you must) is Macheath, aka Mack the Knife, a vicious [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 27: Delia’s Gone

October 27, 2015 // 0 Comments

Tonight, the Halloween mixtape brings us to a song that I think I share every time I do this: “Delia’s Gone,” by Johnny Cash. I’m not sure why the song holds such a grim fascination for me, honestly. In part, I suppose it’s because it’s a murder ballad, and a good one. It’s also Johnny Cash, who I do dearly love, and this was the song that turned me on to his work. Slapped me right in my punk rock loving face and got me to widen my musical [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 26: Up Jumped the Devil

October 26, 2015 // 0 Comments

I wouldn’t call Nick Cave’s music “Halloweenie.” I mean, a lot of it surely is appropriate for the Halloween season. But his stuff’s got teeth in it. His best songs bite back. And that, really, prevents me from using the diminutive in relation to them. I mean, I can only imagine what his reaction might be… Yeah. Yeah, probably something like that. And that’s not a guy I really wanna piss off. So understand, I’m including his music among [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 25: Dirt in the Ground

October 25, 2015 // 0 Comments

Not much to say about tonight’s entry in the Halloween mixtape. It’s a song about death. Stirring lyrics. Macabre and downbeat, yet kind of uplifting in its own strange way. And most important of all, it sounds like Halloween. So I hope you enjoy the musical stylings of Mister Tom Waits, with “Dirt in the [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Days 23 & 24: The Legend of Morrow Road

October 24, 2015 // 0 Comments

Another missed day on the Countdown, another two-fer for the Halloween mixtape… Tonight, we’ve got two from Ms Rachel Brooke, an alternative country artist with a voice like honey. (“Alternative Country” being the label for country music that, you know, actually sounds like country music, and not the disposable twang-pop Nashville’s churning out these days. Just to make that clear to anybody who’s just here for the spooky, and could give a rat’s ass [...]

Countdown to Halloween, Day 22: Through the Woods

October 22, 2015 // 2 Comments

As has become our habit, we’re taking a quick break from the Halloween mixtape tonight to review a Halloweenie funnybook. And this week, it’s finally time to review something I’ve been saving for the Halloween season: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll This book actually came out last fall, but I didn’t stumble across it til the summer. I almost wrote about it then, but decided that, since it’s been out so long anyway, it could wait til now. Carroll’s been [...]