Anything On Your Mind?
And now, part three of Five-o-ween, the series I decided to write about seasonally appropriate music and that I thought about the name of for approximately half a second. In part one, I covered a bunch of metal and it all turned out to be gross stuff. In part two, I set out to cover atmospheric stuff, but mostly ended up writing up a bunch of industrial. And, uh, one metal record. Kinda gross as well. So far, this is going great!
Anyway, in part three, I’m going to cover the leftovers. These are the records that I flagged as I was looking through my library, thinking they might be nice to bring up in this series. It’s going to be a grab bag for sure, but the tunes should be good at a minimum.
Gimme Some Spooky Shit, I Guess?
A sampling of some Halloween appropriate records, whatever they might be.
Deadringer, RJD2
RJD2’s debut got a fair bit of buzz in the underground, especially as it represented Def Jux moving on from New York. It made enough of a splash for RJD2 to work steadily for the ensuing couple decades, up to and including composing the Mad Men theme song. I am, of course, picking this record due to the lead track “The Horror”, which with its samples and siren-like horns, definitely fits the brief. But the atmosphere of the whole album fits in. And look! You can play this at a party without people getting made at you!
There Existed an Addiction to Blood, clipping.
Visions of Bodies Being Burned, clipping.
A small but long-running sub-genre of hip-hop is horrorcore, tracing back primarily to the Geto Boys and continuing through to today. While most people probably think of Insane Clown Posse if they know anything about the genre (which is unfortunate), there have been some great albums in the genre. These two are the best. They’re perfectly produced, Daveed Diggs is dialed in fantastically, and the albums are gruesome. Perfect Haloween records. The band recorded enough material for two albums, designed to be released in rapid succession, but something happened in early 2020 to gum that up. Wonder what that was? Anyway, play ’em both.
Twelve Reasons to Die, Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge
I guess the last one settled into mostly industrial, and this one is settling in to mostly horrorcore. I’m good with that! I’ve sung the praises of this record a fair bit as it has come up in shuffle, so I’ll keep it pretty brief. But this album is basically a love letter to giallo, the Italian horror genre, and Adrian Younge’s production in particular is especially cinematic. Ghostface always sounds great, and this is genuinely one of his best records. Throw it into the playlist! Your party is killing it!
GOLLIWOG, billy woods
I briefly wrote this one up in the last year-end roundup, but billy woods is the best rapper going right now. This is sort of another horrorcore record, at least in attitude, with lots of grim stories, but it’s also rooted in reality in a way the other records here very much are not. That said, still totally fits the mood and it’s a banger record.
6 Feet Deep, Gravediggaz
It’s not the first horrorcore record, but I’d argue it’s the first great one. It’s a supergroup, consisting of a pre-Wu RZA (Prince Raheem at the time), Prince Paul and Frukwam from Stetsasonic, and Poetic, who was a solo artist coming in. As you might imagine with Prince Paul and the RZA on-board, it sounds incredible, and this is the most slasher-flick of the records I’m highlighting here. It’s objectionable, to be clear, but it’s also clear they’re all playing it as a joke.
(NB: there’s an album on Bandcamp called this that appears to be entirely the work of Frukwan, it’s not the same album as the one I’m highlighting here.)
Maximum Perversion, Mephiskapheles
I wrote up the first Mephiskapheles record a few months ago, so even though I think it’s actually better than this one, I’ll still highlight their second record. First, to repeat myself: yes, I know they’re called Mephiskapheles and that’s ridiculous, but please, give it a try. These folks really know what they’re doing. And with tunes like “Satan on the Beach”, they’ll do just fine for this holiday. And after all those records up above, we could use a nice little break with something that sounds nice and pleasant. Even it if it mostly about Satan.
Burnt Offering, Budos Band
I actually meant to put this one in the last post, but it’s fine, it probably fits better with this bunch. Most of the things we’ve had today actually would be fine to play at a gathering, and this one actually might be the easiest of the bunch. Budos Band is still primarily Afrobeat, but with their fourth record, they added some Sabbath vibes to the proceedings. The result was fantastic - recognizable as the Budos Band, but with a little bit of a darker edge to things. Has the right vibes for sure, and this is maybe my favorite Budos Band record.
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Sophisticated Cissy”, The Meters
No, Meters, that’s the opposite of Halloween!
“Tlaloc Icuic”, Tzompantli
This is death/doom, as played through an Indigenous viewpoint, which makes it sounds unlike anything else in the genre. It’s a very cool record that I highly recommend checking out.
“Say It To My Face”, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
This band is known almost entirely as being the faces of the brief swing revival in the 90s, with “Zoot Suit Riot” (and the accompanying hastily thrown together album of the same name) being the only thing people know. Todd in the Shadows has a very fun video about “Zoot Suit Riot” that is worth watching. But that album only had a few new tracks, and mostly pulled tunes from their first three records that fit the whole swing idea. The other songs on those first three records (this coming from the third, Kids on the Street) are mostly not swing, but are kind of energetic rock with horns. I don’t want to say that those records are masterpieces or anything, but the swing revival was a distortion of what the band had been up to (albeit one enthusiastic embraced by them). At any rate, here’s an example of one of their non-swing songs.
“Double Dip”, Hum
Of the Champaign-Urbana bands from the 90s, the Poster Children were the most famous at the time, but Hum has had more endurance. Some of that is due to their very successful 2020 comeback record, and some is probably just the vagaries of fame. I guess maybe their major label records were better received than the Poster Children’s records? Anyway, this is from their second record (I’ve never heard the first), and it’s that familiar droning post-hardcore sound that they would continue to develop on their subsequent records.
“Pretty Girls Make Graves”, The Smiths
God, even the title of this song is just perfect Smiths. They really arrived fully formed.
Josh, What Are You Doing Here?
I’m just writing about music. A structure like this blog helps me get my thoughts out, and it’s a way for me to explore my own music collection through various lenses. My sincere hope is that some folks out there find some new music they love. That’s all I’m up to. Sincere thanks to everybody who sends me feedback, with news that they’ve found a new favorite especially fun for me. There’s no monetization, no metrics, no ads, no promos, no nothing. Just some static web pages, some links, and my scribbling. If you want to support it, just shoot me a note! Thanks for reading.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather, Treble Magazine, The Quietus, Stereogum.