Everyday is Like Sunday, Except for Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday, and...Well, Friday I'm in Love: Weekly Mix #40

It's the most wonderful time of the year...Halloween. Well, technically not until this Friday, but I had to post this mix in time for it, especially since you'll be needing it whether you're throwing a party, carving a pumpkin or four, handing out candy, or decking the halls with blood. Halloween is one of those fantastic times when people can speak truths about themselves through the masks and costumes they wear and when people who celebrate the spirit of Halloween year-long are accepted heartily by the masses. As one who loves the darker side of life, it's a very fun holiday.

Admittedly, I'm not really one for horror films - as a child, I never watched them, and as an adult, I wasn't really drawn to them as a genre. However, I have always been drawn to a Tim Burtonesque style of darkness - when I was a child, I loved Beetlejuice (both film and animated series) and Nightmare Before Christmas. As I grew, I fell in love with Edward Scissorhands, too. In addition to Tim Burton, I loved the first The Addams Family film as a nine-year-old. So, perhaps I love the dark and creepy reality of suburbia instead of hack and slash gore. I suppose I also rather enjoy the campier, wacky darkness like that of The Rocky Horror Show (I've only had the opportunity to see it performed live once, but I went all out to dress up for it). And finally, I also love the wry witty sort of darkeness like that of Edward Gorey, where small children are masticated by bears and strange men in long fur coats lurk in dim Edwardian corridors.

I stopped Trick or Treating when I was 12 or 13, but I have some fond, and some rather cold, memories of going door-to-door with my little bag. The rather irritating thing about having Halloween in a cold climate is the fact that you usually never get to wear the same costume you wore to the Halloween school party when you go out at night - you may risk hypothermia. So, while I was Pippi Longstocking at school (probably the best costume I ever had), I could very well end up as a Mexican man in a sombrero and heavy wool poncho at night. I was a variety of rather unconventional choices, including Merlin, Robin Hood, and on the last night I ever went Trick or Treating (to take a smaller child around with my friend who babysat her), the sadistic girl from The Clockwork Orange-like gang in the relatively obscure film Class of 1984. The last time I dressed up at all for Halloween was for work a couple of years ago where I donned enormous black angel wings, a black wig, and my friends's ginormous platform boots with spikes - it was the most impractical costume in the world, especially when you have to navigate escalators and bookshelves all day, but I think it was one of my better ones as well. I haven't quite thought what I'll do this year as I help to hand out candy, but considering the fact several people call me Wednesday Addams and Emily the Strange on a regular basis, I could just do either of those. We'll see.

Because I love Halloween so much and because I happened either to have and/or find a lot of appropriate music, this mix is pretty massive. Hopefully there's something for every ghoul - there's classic, there's downright silly, there's campy, there's typical, and even some not so typical (I hope there are a few less predictable ones anyway). We've got some soundtrack songs (Nightmare Before Christmas, Ghostbusters, Tales From the Crypt theme, Do the Hippogriff, The Addams Family Theme, The Time Warp, Magic Dance, Nanageddon), some classic oldies (Monster Mash, Purple People Eater, Clap For the Wolfman, Don't Fear The Reaper), some gothy masterpieces (Bela Lugosi's Dead, Release the Bats, Halloween, Every Day is Halloween), some danceable tunes (Thriller, My Vampire, Vampire, Ghosts), and some newer novelties (Hip Deep Family, If I Only Were a Goth). Since this mix is a three-hour one, I'm only posting half of them for individual download and then the entire mix in a zip file. The mix is called Anglopunk's Bloody Good Halloween Mix. Enjoy your treat bag.

This is Halloween - Danny Elfman

Ramalama (Bang Bang) - Roisin Murphy

Monster Mash - Bobby Pickett and the Crypt Kickers

Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley

Clap For the Wolfman - The Guess Who

Abracadabra - Steve Miller Band

The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Halloween - Siouxsie and the Banshees

Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus

Release the Bats - The Birthday Party

I Put a Spell On You - Arthur Brown

Halloween - Sonic Youth

Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

I Was a Teenage Werewolf - The Cramps

Transylvanian Concubine - Rasputina

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) - David Bowie

Date With a Vampyre - The Screaming Tribesmen

Do the Hippogriff - The Weird Sisters

Vampire Racecourse - The Sleepy Jackson

Waiting For the Wolves - Daisy Chainsaw

Faces & Masks - The Cherubs

Vampire Love - Ash

Frankenstein - New York Dolls

Tales From the Crypt Theme

Nanageddon - The Mighty Boosh

Magic Dance - David Bowie

I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow

My Vampire - Soho Dolls

Vampire - Paul St. Paul and the Apostles

For Halloween - No Kids

Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.

Ghosts - Comateens

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Every Day is Halloween - Ministry

The Addams Family Theme

All Cats Are Grey - The Cure

Skeletons - The Sound

Lycanthropy - Patrick Wolf

Please Mr. Gravedigger - David Bowie

Graveyard - Public Image Ltd.

Theme For a Witch - David R. Prangely and The Witches

Waking the Witch - Kate Bush

Bat's Mouth - Bat For Lashes

Hip Deep Family - The Tiger Lillies

If I Only Were a Goth - Thoushaltnot


Weekly Mix #40 (Megaupload)