By Zach Hagadone and Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff
Alongside its jollier cousin in December, Halloween is as much a feeling as a specific date on the calendar. Critical to that feeling, of course, is the musical accompaniment. For the second year in a row, we’ll present a handful of suggested entries for your Halloween playlist each week in October.
Will Wood and the Tapeworms
Will Wood and the Tapeworms’ discography feels like listening to at least two, maybe three, different bands rolled into one. At one moment, the group has a classically creepy vaudeville, dark cabaret sound, complete with morbid singsong lyrics, accordions and seemingly upbeat instrumentation rendered sinister by minor chords. (These are such Halloween-worthy songs as “Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY” and “Hold My Shovel, I’m Going In!”) In the next moment, well, it’s still all that, but with a hard-rock spin that borders on screamo. These songs — “Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity,” “Dr. Sunshine is Dead” and “Thermodynamic Lawyer, Esq, G.F.D.” — are like a musical manifestation of mania. Listen on Spotify.
AAAH!BBA
Comedian Brian David Gilbert is most known for his YouTube content and voice acting roles, but whether he’s writing, acting or directing, he always manages to work his love of music into everything he does. Anyone who prefers Ghostbusters to The Ring and night terrors should listen to his 2021 extended play AAAH!BBA, a series of five Halloween-themed ABBA parodies. Highlights include “Lay All Your Love On Me” as sung by Count Dracula, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” by Victor Frankenstein and “Money, Money, Money” by a mummy. He gives each parody a gothic or ragtime flair complete with ridiculous accents to match. Listen at briandavidgilbert.com.
I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
From the name alone, it’s clear that I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME’s music is meant to be as unnerving as it is catchy — a goal that indie-rock artist Dallon Weekes meets and then some. His songs like “Choke” and “Mx. Sinister” are spooky season staples for both their eerie take on alt-pop and the fact that they sound as though they’re sung from the perspective of a serial killer (in a fun way). “Absinthe” and “SPKOTHDVL” are likewise bass-heavy, worthy additions to any October playlist that are also just addicting to listen to. Find everything on idkhow.com.
‘Necromancin Dancin’
How could we resist a “Tune of Terror” with lyrics like, “When I’m necromancin’ / Everyone’s dancin’ / No one can stop me, I dare you to try / The dead are infused with sensational groove / And they’re coming for you now, there’s nowhere to hide.” That’s from Bear Ghost, the Phoenix-based, self-described “adventure rock band” whose name alone would put it in the running for our Halloween soundtrack. This particular track is a jumpy pop party banger that doesn’t skimp on the spooky organ work, ripping guitar riffs and lyrical playfulness that includes gems like, “Yeah (bust a move or you’ll lose) / The dance of the dead (they’ll swarm all over you) / Get out there and shred (it’s a zombie footloose) / And make some evil.” Find it on YouTube.
‘The Ghost of Stephen Foster’
The venerable Squirrel Nut Zippers is well known for playing a leading part in the late-20th and early-21st century mini-revival of Big Band-style swing and ska-infused jazz, and among the band’s most enduring tracks is 1999’s “The Ghost of Stephen Foster” — a rollicking funhouse of a tune that (sort of) imagines a spectral encounter with the iconic composer of the mid-1800s, who dispenses such wisdom as, “Ships were made for sinking / Whiskey made for drinking / If we were made of cellophane, we’d all get stinking drunk quite faster.” That’s pretty memorable, but even more indelible is the retro-cartoon inspired video accompanying the song, which is still racking up views on YouTube well into its second decade following the original upload.
