So..what does surfing have to do with Halloween? Not a whole hell of a lot, at first blush. But scratch the wax surface and you might find that surfboard is really a coffin lid.
In the mid-'60s, when the spooky/weird trend of THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS took pop culture by storm, an ultragothic/ultracreepy vibe mixed with the minor-key twanging of surf guitar riffs and coalesced into the subgenre of Spooky Surf Music. Bands with names like The Deadly Ones or Morgus and the Dairingers [sic] played twangy-yet-foreboding instrumentals layered with howls and thunder and creepy laughter SFX, disposable songs that at the time were treated as little more than novelty records--but this music had the staying power of the Undead, because the Spooky Surf Music tradition continues to this day with contemporary surf bands like The Ghastly Ones and The Sinisters. And in my search for the most guitar-a-riffic sounds, I often veered outside the lines into nonsurf genres and was richly rewarded for it by discovering Darling Pet Munkee, a band whose mission it is to write a song for every cheesy ad found in the back of comicbooks--like songs about Hypno-Coins, X-Ray Spex, and "Real Dirt from Dracula's Castle" Necklaces! And I had to add Lux Interior and The Cramps because it isn't Halloween without our St. Lux. So far as sweetening the show, I only goosed up the spaces between the songs--but just imagine my expression when I heard the opening of "Ghost Guitars" by Baron Daemon and the Vampires and recognized an Evil Laff effect I use quite often! (That one isn't mine.) And to make up for coasting through this one, I edited a special opening disclaimer that's absolutely larded with creepy SFX to compensate for taking the lazy-assed DJ way out. I hate myself for it, and I feel like I'm cheating the listeners when I just play songs--but since it's not all versions of Nancy Sinatra's "Boots," it's far less painful than my usual fare, so I guess it's kind of a mercy. This is the most low-key Halloween episode I've ever done--in fact, it's so orderly that I can list the tracks as they play:
The Sinisters--"Introduction to Terror" The Ghastly Ones--"Surfin' Spooks" The Deadly Ones--"It's Monster Surfin' Time" Darling Pet Munkee--"Monster S-I-Z-E Monster" The Abstracts--"Nightmare" The Surfin' Dead--"Dead Surfers Tell No Tales" Baron Daemon and the Vampires--"Ghost Guitars" The Swanks--"Ghost Train" The Ghastly Ones--"Haulin' Hearse" The Tarantulas--"Like--?--Spellbound" [that's the way the label reads] The Messer Chups--"The Vincent Price Bible" Morgus and the Dairingers--"The Morgus Creep" Convulsing Wind Puppets--"Surfin' Vampire" The Pistols at Dawn--"Surf Monster" The Ghastly Ones--"Shockmonster Surf" As Diabatz--"Witches' Stomp" Hawaii Samurai--"The Shape of Surf to Come" Public Image Limited--"Graveyard" The Cramps--"Surfin' Dead" The Sinisters--"Zombie Waltz"
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