It is Sunday, Spoopy Sunday again folks, and so I return with some mostly ghostly, and vastly ghastly reviews!
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Every day is Halloween. Well, for me it is. For some folks it isn’t, and that’s a shame.
Part of the allure of Halloween, and October in general, inspires people to listen to spoopier music. Some go for the more traditional seasonal favourites, which is fine. I do love me some classic Halloween tunage. However, a few of my favourites you may have never heard. Some are covers of Halloween classics. Some are just my kind of strange. I’ll list a few this week and maybe some more next week.
Toni Childs – The Dead Are Dancing
This is my absolute favourite song for this time of year. It is such a beautiful tribute to the season, in many different ways. It conjures up such haunting imagery of gloomy cemetery waltzes in the hazy harvest moonlight – but it also evokes the despair of penance and the finality of death. Her deep, raspy voice gives an air of decay and anguish. Some songs give me a certain synesthetic response. This is one of them. It is dove grey and umbra, and it smells of autumn woods and tastes like pumpkin spice. It is twilight, howling winds, gauzy shrouds and the skittering of dry leaves over wet pavement. It’s perfection. (There’s also a Spanish version of this song, which is perfect for Dia de los Muertos)
The Cure – Fear Of Ghosts
The Cure is my absolute favourite band of all time. They have the ability to touch me in ways most music can not. Each song, each album, represents a specific time in my life that I can instantly recall upon listening. The same feelings that rise and overcome me. This song, since it’s release in 1989, has always been a Halloween favourite in the house I grew up in. Every year it was on the Halloween mix tape my father would keep in the car. It conjures up those different Halloween’s past throughout my life. It’s a reflection of my childhood and journey into the unknown future of my womanhood. The lyrics are so painful and personal for me, I can not help but fall into a dark place while listening to it. But it is a dark place I know well, and can navigate my way out of. It’s pure nostalgia and hiraeth. It is deeply resonant of this shadowy season.
Mourning Ritual – Bad Moon Rising
This is a fairly recent cover of an old classic. I loved the original. I also loved Rasputina’s cover as well. But this one takes the cake. It’s dark and creepy and much more appropriate to the sinister lyrics than the original. I really fell in love with it.
Nouvelle Vague – Bela Lugosi’s Dead
I know, I know – Bauhaus is everything and how dare I prefer this cover to the original. Well, I do. It’s sexy and I like it better, dammit. That’s all there is to it.
Selebrities – Monster Mash
I love me some Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett. But these guys turned this classic into a dreamy, gothic new wave thing of beauty. Iminstantly fell in love. It’s a new favourite for me to flail about in my room to. I flail often. BECAUSE GOTH.
Barnes and Barnes – Cemetery Girls
This song is delightfully creepy. My father loves Dr. Demento/Rhino Records, so I was introduced to this early on in my life. It used to scare me, actually. Once I got the humour of it, it became an instant favourite. Plus the song is sung by the guy who played Anthony in my favourite Twilight Zone Episode “It’s a good life”. I still can’t pass corn fields without thinking of it. Or hear California Girls without changing the lyrics. Brilliant song.
John Maus – Cop Killer
Yeah, it’s a controversial topic, but oh well. This song is super dark and moody. It also has that old 80’s horror movie feel to it, much like the music in Stranger Things. I love it. How it hasn’t landed on a horror movie soundtrack yet, I will never know. Maybe it’s too taboo. NOT FOR ME.
That’s just a few for now. I will think of more for next week. In the meantime, you can check out a Halloween 8tracks account my husband and I created with specific playlists by theme. It’s only a small portion of our endless Halloween music collection.
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I did watch some films this week. Two in particular stood out:
Lace Crater
Okay, this is It Follows, only with hipsters and drugs. It’s fucking weird and bizarre. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. It Follows is far, far better – but if you feel like wasting some time on a dark comedy, give this one a go. 3/5
Excess Flesh
This movie was gross. All of the eating noises and puking and general bulimia triggers was making it hard for me to enjoy this film. I mean, I’ve never been bulimic or anything, but fuck. It was gross. Good acting though. The two main actresses definitely pulled me in – in a way where I vehemently hated one and related to the psychosis of the other. Not in the actions she chose to deal with it, but you know. I got it. It was an ok film. 3/5
Both films can be found on Shudder.
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I recently checked out Desiderii Marginis’s album Procession. It’s super spoopy. This guy is a master of dark ambient music. My personal favourite track is Silent Messenger. I do love me some dudek. It is hands down the most mournful instrument other than the uilleann pipes. This album evokes so many sensations of loss, desolation, melancholy and sorrow. It has the atmosphere of post apocalyptic ruins, an age of death and destruction – total annihilation. The void it leaves behind. The deep sense you are part of the earth’s final funeral procession. It’s haunting compositional perfection. 5/5
You can listen to the album in its entirety on Spotify.
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And on one final note – in regards to Jessicka Addams (of Jack Off Jill, Scarling) recent post concerning hers and Jeordie White’s (Twiggy Ramirez) abusive relationship – I want to personally say I believe her 100%. I think Jeordie should release a statement instead of going private on social media. I think the whole situation is utterly tragic, and certain people involved aren’t being transparent enough about what they obviously must’ve known and didn’t take appropriate action to rectify the situation. It’s shameful and has made me reevaluate my opinion and level of respect for these individuals. I could go on and on about this, but maybe that’s another article for another time. I just wanted to briefly state my stance on this situation, because it’s important to take a stand. #teamjessicka
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Stay spoopy, my ghoulish fiends.
/X(..)X\
Angelicque
You can find Angelicque on instagram here and here.
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