# 20 Days Till Halloween



## Dinosaur1972 (Mar 28, 2007)

20 Days Till Halloween
10/10/2013

*Monster Party 2000 (2000)
*This CD is stamped from the same mold as Hootenanny … spooky intro, cover tunes and originals, vocals and instrumentals. If it loses points for not getting Zacherley, it gets them back for the brilliant artwork. I really love the unexpected and brilliant rockabilly take on the theme from Young Frankenstein.

*Rev. Tom Frost Meets Mr. Monsterhead - The Horror Show Part I (2010)
*Reverend Frost had made Halloween music mixes for his blog for years (I reviewed them earlier). This is his own release … the first 4 tracks are his, while the last 4 are by “Mr. Monsterhead”. I like Frost’s instrumentals the most … he tries to make his vocals creepy, but that doesn’t seem to work for me. Monsterhead’s tracks are more surf-guitar-based, and he makes no attempt to sing. If this is their first foray into recording music, they did a superb job.

*Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe (1998)
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (2010)*
I like what Zombie has done for the spooky music genre, and I’ve seen a few interviews – he really loves all things related to classic horror. Some of his songs on these albums are a little harder and angrier than what I prefer, and I’m not a big fan of foul language. But you can’t deny that the man’s got style. You also get a much wider variety of musical styles listening to his music than on any of the other albums I’ve listened to the last couple days, and I love the little sound bites he sprinkles in.

*Rob Zombie presents Captain Clegg And The Night Creatures (2009)
*Based on what I can find on Wikipedia, I don’t know if this is a real band or not. It is pretty good horrorbilly music … the songs are short, the lyrics are pretty fun, the instrumentals are suitably spooky, and the song titles are cute. Is this a Zombie side project, or does this band really exist?

*Satan's Pilgrims - At Home With (1995)
*If you are only going to do one thing, do it well. On this album, all 15 tracks are horror-surf instrumentals. OK stuff, but nothing heart-stopping. I like the “Music to Watch Girls By” cover, and “Peter Lorre” might be my favorite horrorbilly song – so many great chord changes, awesome organ – great, great song.

*Surf Trio - Forbidden Sounds (1999)
*I’d probably like this more if I hadn’t just listened to 15 3-minute tracks of instrumental horrorbilly. But here we are with 21 2-minute tracks of mostly-instrumental horrorbilly. I like “Surfin with the Mountain King” and “Foglifter”. 

*The Route 66 Killers - Murder On Beaver Street (2003)
*Oof … more instrumental horrorbilly. These guys don’t vary their songs much by key or tempo. 

*VA - This is Horrorpunk
VA - This Is Horrorpunk, Vol. 2*
Clearly this is not horrorbilly. This is horrorpunk. And it’s a more metal-y than I prefer. Not my cup of tea, but a welcome change for my morning. 

*Yells from the Crypt (2005)
*Pretty much a horrorpunk compilation, and a pretty mediocre one at that … but then maybe I’m just getting tired of it. “Packin’ Heat at the Speakeasy” by Rainer Hass was pretty awesome. Several other songs were the exact opposite of awesome.

*Zombie Ghost Train - Monster Formal Wear (2003)
*Not bad, but tracks 1,2, and 5 are in the same key. Tracks 3, 6, and 7 are in the same key. There are only 7 tracks. So don’t be surprised when I say that several songs kinda sound the same. 

*Zombina & The Skeletones - Halloween Hollerin (2003)
*This must be an EP, as there are 7 tracks, none longer than 2-1/2 minutes. Despite its amateur-ish sound, the songs are pretty fun. It’s kind of a horror version of the B-52’s. 

Let’s see if I can wrap up these Monster Mash-up CDs …

*Monster Mash-Up - Evil Twin of Monster Mash-Up (2006)
*A companion to “Bride of Monster Mash-Up”. “Somebody’s Sunglasses” and “Dark Shadows Cha Cha Cha” are fun, and a terrific mashup of the “Caspar” theme with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. At the end is a really long megamix by Cheekyboy that’s pretty fun, stringing several familiar Halloween songs together for 24 minutes … who knew “Haunted House of Rock” would sound so good over “Superstition”? (Cheekyboy, THAT’S who.)

*Monster Mash-Up - CD 1 - Pumpkin On Your Stereo (2010)
Monster Mash-Up - CD 2 - Phantom of the MashUpera (2010)*
These mash-ups fascinate me more from a creativity standpoint than anything else … like “Wow, how did they think of that?” … but beyond that I don’t find them terribly interesting. But … holy crap, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaaaa” fits on top of “Right Round” really well. And “Monster” with “Holiday”. I mean, who thinks of that?


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