By Soncirey Mitchell and Zach Hagadone
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.
Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo
There’s a reason Tim Burton — Hollywood’s king of goth — always collaborates with composer and musician Danny Elfman. The eccentric singer, with his myriad tattoos and bright orange hair, is the physical embodiment of Halloween and manages to make every song both weird and creepy in the best way. Elfman was at his most experimental with his new wave, pop-punk jazz collage of a band, Oingo Boingo, which produced such spooky hits as “Dead Man’s Party,” “Weird Science” and “Insanity,” with its always-eerie children’s chorus. Anyone lucky enough to be in Bilbao, Spain on the 31th will even get to see Elfman’s candlelight Halloween concert. We’re not jealous.
The Black Rider
Among the dark stars in the galaxy of oddball musical theater, The Black Rider shines with uncommon luster. Drawing from the avant-garde tradition, the production is a musical play (sometimes described as an opera and other times a “musical fable”), based on the 1810 story The Fatal Marksman by German writer Johann August Apel. It tells the tale of a hapless, lovestruck young man who tries and fails to woo the beautiful daughter of the local woodsman. To gain her affections, he enters into a deal with the Devil that will allow him to cast bullets that never miss their mark. Legendary weirdo William S. Burroughs (of Naked Lunch and Junkie fame) wrote the production book and no less than Tom Waits penned the songs and lyrics. Directed by Robert Wilson, The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets premiered on stage in Hamburg, Germany in 1990 and has been performed up to the present day — most recently in Rostock, Germany this year. It’s hard to identify standout tracks. The experience is worth having in total; but, for my money, top entries include the overture, title track, “November” and “Just the Right Bullets.” Find both the album by Waits and recordings of live performances on YouTube. Also learn more about the overall piece at robertwilson.com/the-black-rider.
Joy Division
Listening to Joy Division’s take on post-punk — especially in songs like “Atrocity Exhibition” and “The Eternal” — feels like walking through an abandoned building and hearing footsteps behind you. It has the raw, grinding sound of musicians with passion, anger and a disregard for classical training, making it feel unfinished, and all the more human for it. Add to that industrial sound some droning vocals like the chanting of a funeral dirge, and you have the perfectly discordant music that was foundational in establishing the goth rock genre. Despite only releasing two albums, Joy Division’s innovation earned them a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the annals of Halloween music history.
Hozier
For every season, there is a Hozier song — or two or three. Though, the Irish folk and blues does have a deft, literary handle on gothic romanticism. He effortlessly blends macabre images and an understanding of human brutality with almost mythologized visions of nature. “In the Woods Somewhere” is essentially a short horror story about stumbling across a supernatural power, sung in a haunting minor key by one of this generation’s most beautiful voices. Likewise, “In a Week” explores the tender sentiment of rotting under the sky with your lover. As for “Eat Your Young” and “Arsonist’s Lullabye,” well, you can imagine why they’re included here.
Reverend Glasseye
Formed in the first year of the 21st century by Boston-based Adam (Glasseye) Beckley, this group is credited as one of the establishing sounds in the “cabaret punk” genre with its meticulously orchestrated repertoire that ventures from horror folk to gothic country to sinister vaudeville and even some sea chanteys. Bolstered by Beckley’s tremolo vocals and driving rhythms, highlights are “Mother Was a Carpegian” from the 2005 album Our Lady of the Broken Spine and carnival dirges like “Black River Falls” from the 2001 album of the same name. Throw in “50% Murder” and “3 Ton Chain” and you’ve got a full “Tunes of Terror” playlist right there. Defunct since 2013, find the band’s oeuvre on YouTube.
