Tunes for All Hallow’s Eve


Songs in this collection may or may not be directly related to Halloween, and it’s probably the first Halloween play list without Monster Mash.
[Caveat: No copyright infringement is intended; songs posted here are for entertainment purposes only.]

[Update – Added SJH per Taminator’s suggestion.]

Saturday Matinee Pre-Halloween Edition – The Interrupters, Messer Chups, The Creepshow & Tom Waits

The Interrupters: Aimee Interrupter & the Bivona brothers sing an ode to a poor bony soul.

From St. Petersburg, Russia,  Messer Chups is listed under vampire space zombie surf rock. “Messer” is German for “knife” and “Chups” is from Chupa Chups lollipops.

The Creepshow has been blasting psychopunkabilly for a while. Zombies Ate Her Brain was from their debut album, Sell Your Soul (2006).

Who needs Halloween music when you got Tom Waits with his Olds 88 and the devil on a leash.

Been a busy week taking care of busy-ness and dodging busybodies. Tomorrow we’ll porch. See you at the crack of noon.

Saturday Matinee – Tom Waits, Joe Louis Walker & Kid Anderson (with Tommy Harkenrider, Brent Harding & Derrick D’Mar Martin)

Tom WaitsTelephone Call From Istanbul was released on his album Frank’s Wild Years (1987) and was featured in the movie Big Time (1988).

Joe Louis Walker at Broadway Studios, San Francisco, December 1999. Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper, opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate of Mike Bloomfield, and that’s some serious cred.

Kid Anderson / lead guitar, Tommy Harkenrider / rhythm guitar, Brent Harding / bass and Derrick D’Mar Martin / drums at the Beatnik Bandito Emporium, Santa Ana, California, February 2020.

Nice set for St. Medarus Day. Celebrations will commence on the front porch whenever you get here. If I’m not out you’ll need to holler at the door because the doorbell doesn’t work.

Saturday Matinee – The Pogues, Chelsea Williams & Johnny Winter

The Pogues lost one. RIP Shane MacGowan.

Nice bluesy cover of a Tom Waits song sung by Chelsea Williams, with John Schroeder / guitar, Vikram Devasthali / trombone, and husband Ross Garren / harmonetta. Should have been filmed in 16mm b&w – in 1927.

Too soon for Christmas music, so how about some Winter? Fire it up!

Another week gone in a blink and the Thanksgiving leftovers are gone. Nothing to do but be back here tomorrow and think thoughts while we still have time. See you then.

Saturday Matinee Halloween Edition – Rebooted, David Lynch, Tom Waits & Alabama Black Snakes

“It’s not easy for a movie-star to age – especially when you’re a stop motion animated skeleton monster. Phil, once a terrifying villain of the silver-screen, struggles to find work in modern Hollywood due to being an out-of-date special effect.”

Article with “the making of” video here.

David Lynch does the creepo.

Who needs Halloween music when you got Tom Waits.  Little kids wouldn’t come near our house once they got within earshot of Bone Machine.

Alabama Black Snakes fit in with the theme.

Gonna be some pumpkin sacrificin’ around here, even if Halloween comes on a Monday this year. Have a good one, see you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – This Is Hormel (1964), The Rave-Ups, Tom Waits, Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, and Freddie King

Everything you ever wanted to know about Hormel… up to 1964. [h/t SL]

The Rave-Ups got some traction for their work in the movie Pretty In Pink (1986). Their cover of the ByrdsYou Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere is pretty good, too.

Tom Waits does rockabilly his way, and the intro on his live version is pure awesome.

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood tell the truth (2009).

Any Freddie KIng jam makes me smile, and Boogie Funk (ca. 1968) matches what’s been going on in my brain lately. (I’m not sure that’s the correct song title – it might be Feelin’ Good.)

Have a great weekend, we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Preliographical Hot Links

Filipino Box Spring Hog, Tom Waits (1999) Album: Mule VariationsIf you don’t know who Tom Waits is, I truly feel sorry for you. Redeem yourself by clicking on this.


From the Dept. of Rare Honesty:
I received a letter from USAA this week.

“Attached is a check for $53.12. This amount represents a refund for all finance charges and fees that should have been reimbursed, as well as interest of $50.22.”

Apparently, the amount “disputed” was $2.90. Assuming 7.5% compounded interest, it dates to 1980. No idea what I “disputed.”


Peckerholes.

Remembering Snooty.

Jon Rahm’s got a Jesus ball.

HUGE solar flare and more cool astrostuff.

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

Spontaneous human combustion cases are rising.

Why over 100 Seattle police quit the force (in their own words).

Interview with David Kahn (author of The Code Breakers) on modern cryptography trends (2013).

In 1968, Bernd Boettger escaped from East Germany with a home-made submarine. [Related escape story here.]

Why I Hate Australians is a rant from 2006. It’s got over 1,200 comments; more are added daily.

[Top image: Ol’ Blue Boar weighs 500 pounds, is missing an eye, has razor sharp teeth, and is the meanest pig in the world.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.


Saturday Matinee – Lou Reed, Tom Waits & Popa Chubby

Lou Reed had an incredible a vocal range. In 2015, as he was about to be (posthumously) inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his sister wrote about their early years in A Family In Peril.

Tom Waits‘ “Telephone call from Istanbul” from the movie Big Time. The missus-to-be and I saw it at the Nuart in L.A., and I remember it being damn surreal.

Popa Chubby (aka Theodore Joseph “Ted” Horowitz) cranks out Hambone Willie Newbern‘s “Roll and Tumble Blues” (1929).

Have great weekend, folks, and be sure to wear a mask and maintain proper social distance if you decide to go looting and burning businesses in your neighborhood. See you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Nablus Soap Factory, WHODAT, Fishing With John & FISHBONE

Amazing. The contents of clay cylinders found during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800BC, and these guys in Nablus are still doing it the ancient way, by hand. Why?

Nice animation that must have taken a while to make [via].

Fishing with John (with Japanese subtitles). From the Utoobage comments: “The problem with other fishing shows is that they are too polished, too normal. And they don’t have enough Tom Waits.”

Reminds me of “The Fishin’ Musician” series featuring John Candy.

Now for something completely different.

I don’t know what Fishbone was yammering about here, but I like the vibe.

As long as a tune was good, I never paid much attention to lyrics, but sometimes, years later, I found that the songs I liked a lot weren’t about what I thought they were about at all.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Steel Shredder, Egg Cracker, Android 207, Tom Waits & Pink Floyd

https://youtu.be/_lA9vgU4uFI

Not sure why, but this kind of stuff fascinates me.

Egg-breaking machine complete with egg-breaking porn soundtrack found here.

I ran across Paul Whittington‘s Android 207 a coupla years ago. Seems to fit.

Tom Waits‘ self-accompanied masterpiece “Clang Boom Steam” also seems appropriate.

From the Utoobage description: “The iconic video was created by Gerald Scarfe initially as a backdrop film for when the band [Pink Floyd] played the track on its 1977 In the Flesh tour.”
From the Utoobage comments: “Imagine having to wait 40 years to watch your favorite band’s official videoclip.”

Have a great weekend, folks, and don’t forget that astronomy is gonna happen tomorrow night.