Halloween Countdown: 31 Songs

Halloween was always the best morning show in the WCYY days (St. Pats too!). Grey and blazing bright October days deserve a killer Halloween playlist. A song a day til Halloween. Find it on Spotify, with a couple of changes since not all songs were available. Find a rare one or a new one & steal this playlist!
Holy Rock-tober!  Recovering radio dj relapse :)

\m/
Robin Ivy Payton

October 1. Mad Season. The ghost of Layne Staley. I spent many nights sitting in the dark listening to the Mad Season album when it was new (1995), the first year of WCYY in fact. Totally psyched about the deluxe re-release two years ago. Lifeless Dead.

 
October 2. Type O Negative. From one of my all time favorite albums, October Rust. That October, also 1995, is very vivid for me. Life was changing. I had lots of new friends and social acquaintances. I know that on Halloween I was at the old Free Street Taverna (now Dogfish) seeing Twisted Roots in a belly dancer outfit from the little costume & accessory shop on Pleasant Street. I still miss that spot (what was it called. I'm blanking.) Change is challenging and sometimes I was vague about where life was going, and this is what I was listening to. RIP Pete Steele & Layne Staley. 2 in a row. 


October 3rd. Concrete Blonde. This band is close to my heart. I saw them many times in the late 1980s & had dinner with them once or twice. Johnette used to shop at the aforementioned costume shop on Pleasant Street in Portland when she came to town.  When I was pregnant with Devin I saw them at the Tree Cafe (1989), and I still have the orange and black CB t shirt I wore that night. Perfect vintage tee for the season. Johnette Napolitano keeps a blog and  posts on twitter as therealjohnette.


October 4th. This caught my ear on sirius blog radio a few days ago. Obsessive & strange. Sexwitch.


October 5th. I was an Alice Cooper kid. (photo from 2011 Portland, Maine with Rob Zombie)





October 6. Reverend Horton Heat. Look up Halloween Hootenany. It's a great collection originally introduced to me by the Facemelter, Shawn Jeffrey.


October 7. Ministry. Kind of impossible not to include this one.



Day 8. It's Throwback Thursday and this band/song were a moment in time. I interviewed them on the Warped Tour in Mansfield Mass. They were very silly, as is the video. Ludo. 


Day 9. Vintage style. Donovan captures the spirit of this final morning of Mercury retrograde.


Lord Huron. #10 is A new addition for 2015. The World Ender.


Day 11. Alkaline Trio slowed it and added their own eerie to this classic Misfits song.


Day 12. The Who. One of the first Halloween songs I can remember. I guess I've  known this all my life. The Who.


#13 of 31. The first time I heard this band, my musical life changed. 1985. A song from that era. The Cult. 



Day 14 featuring something recently discovered. Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Rattlin' those Bones. 


Need costume inspiration? Look at those old Bowie photos, album covers, videos & do it up! Day 15. Scary Monsters (and super creeps!)


Day 16. Meat Puppets continue the monstrous trend.


Day 17. Get yourself a copy of Nightmare Revisited. A Halloween staple. Korn's version.


Day 18. I fell all the way, head over heels in love with My Chemical Romance in 2004. I used to have a house with a ghost named Helen. Close enough. 



Day 19. Have a local Halloween. Portland's own Covered in Bees. Zom-bees!




Day 20. If you can ever snag a copy of Halloween Hootenany, do it. Dead Elvis from that collection.  A CYY Halloween staple for many years.



Day 21. Rocky Horror Punk Show isn't that easy to come by. Find it. Killer version of the RH original. 



Day 22. Ozzy. I was a WAAF kid. Massachusetts friends, maybe you were too? 



Day 23 ( a prime number day like 31). The King of Halloween, Mr. Rob Zombie. A year round favorite from the CYY morning show days. Meeting Zombie was a cool experience. He's got good, strong energy...for a creep. <): D



24th of 31. A true classic from Bauhaus. Bela Lugosi's Dead.



Day 25. So many songs, so few days! The man, Johnny Cash.



Day 26 of 31! Be sure to add Pet Semetary to your list too, but I'm partial to SpiderMan & the Ramones appear in this video so don't skip the visual.



27. Only 4 to go. Gnarls Barkley with a wicked one. 



Countdown is on now! Day 28 selection is my favorite Dave Matthews song. I remember the first time I heard this in the hallway of the radio station. Mesmerized on first listen.



Re-watched Rocky Horror this week. Do you know every word to every song on that soundtrack? Apparently I do. And Tim Curry...genius.



30 Days of Halloween. I never want this to end. The Cramps.



Day 31 belongs to Marilyn Manson. Stupendous version.




Happy Halloween forever! 









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