You could start off with The Melody Four - all three of them - playing "The Munsters" theme tune (from TV Mais Oui, on Chabada). Followed by The Recedents Zombie Bloodbath on the Isle of Dogs. Yup, Lol Coxhill's my Halloween main man. With a bit of orange makeup he could closely resemble a pumpkin too.

Iancu Dumitrescu always goes down a treat!

Or playing all of Sonic Youth's SYR discs simultaneously.

Have you considered music used by the Bush campaign?

Or if you could get hold of At Death's Door Volume I or II. I'm sure the kids would dig Gorguts. When the parents ask you can say "This fine selection is entitled 'Hideous Infirmity.' Would your children like to hear Disincarnate's choice rendering of 'Stench of Paradise Burning'?"

I'm now remembering one Halloween when I got home with my candy, opened up a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup (my favourite) and found three maggots writhing around in the center. Put me off them for some time.

Man, recent postings are making me sound like a metaller!

I'm going with Rope, "Widow's Dawn" this year. Been planning to since I first got that wonderful disc many months ago.

Seems to me can respond to two posts in one here...

Jandek, GLAD TO GET AWAY

Also:

Steve Reich, COME OUT and IT'S GONNA RAIN

That's "Widow's First Dawn," O Walto. And it is a perfect soundtrack.

"Bitches Brew" has always worked, and it has in fact turned away many a parent and child. Swans, Diamanda Galas, Crumb's "Black Angels," and Khanate also do the trick.

Oh, yeah, Khanate's Things Viral is a killer.

Mortician's also good (lots of screaming and horror-movie dialogue samples).

If you really wanna freak the neighbors out, though, slap on Laibach's Krst Pod Triglavom on Sub Rosa, at window-rattling volume. Their Macbeth is good this time of year, too.

Well, for a special Halloween performance a few years ago, my group played, among other things:

Dance Cadaverous (Wayne Shorter)
Halloween Spooks (Lambert, Henricks, and Ross)
A Call For All Demons (Sun Ra)
A Street Named Hell (Sun Ra)
The Evil Garden (Max Nagl)
Ghosts (Albert Ayler)
Spirits (Albert Ayler)

...

and if you're still looking for costume ideas:

http://www.thestranger.com/current/special.html

In the pagan name of Samhain, these are some damn fine suggestions. Red’s post (killer set list!) brings up a related question- what are y’all dressing up as?

Little Bobby Dylan.

someone already grabbed my first pick (diamanda galas, specifically 'saint of the pit' or the dance section of 'defixiones'.

other things might include some Wolf Eyes ('dread' or 'burned mind'), Junko's solo work, lots of doom metal or dark ambient, not to mention some creepy noise (recent hive mind stuff, for example). thuja's hills, for that slightly creepy atmospheric feel.

i should try to put together a halloween mix, it would be a handy thing to have around.

m

Well for the last few years I've played Partch's The Bewitched, which continues to sound good with each play (I'm open to any other Partch recs from you mavens). But elsewhere Derek urged me to expand to Messiaen's Meditations Sur Le Mystere De La Sainte Trinite, which will be rattling the rafters, and Neil Young's "Dead Man" soundtrack.

I'm also gonna check out all the suggestions here for the future; I could throw some Diamanda Galas on but if I crank it too much there might be dogs howling all the way to the county line. But it's a great suggestion.

What I typically do is make a mix of spooky sound effects and then wait around with open windows and look for kids coming up the street and then start playing the theremin that I built when they get close (I'm hidden from view in a darkened room). Then I step out wearing a skull mask and hooded robe. It really freaks out the younger kids, one little girl jumped off my porch last year. I gave her a lot of extra candy since she was really upset and not just startled. I felt bad, since I really love halloween and monster movies and cheap thrills and candy and crunching leaves and all that goes with it... Ah, childhood memories. We're supposed to have great weather on Sunday, I can't wait.

I think I'll just leave 'Bar Sachiko' on endless loop this year.

The best thing I've seen is my friend's dad dressed as a scarecrow, then plonked himself down on a chair on the porch with a bowl of candy signed 'Please Take One Piece Only,' knowing full well that kids love it when they come upon such opportunities to abuse the honor system. What bounty! When some kid started scooping handfuls out of the bowl, he'd spring to life a shout 'I said take one!' whilst seizing them by the limbs. My friend's dad was 6'4" and about 250 lbs.

I always wanted to go as Marty McFly from Back To The Future. And if I was in a Halloween band . . . probably Fugazi reincarnate as a 60s R&B group.

One year I wore a suit with a pentagram stiched to the inside linig of the jacket. A guy in my hall commented, "Are you, like, Normal Guy or somethin'?" When I showed him the patch inside he looked confused and asked "You don't believe that stuff, do you?" This was the same guy who couldn't fathom my response to his question Are you comin' to The Game tonight?

What game?

Great stories, Rob & Michael.

Prepping for a Halloween party tonight prompted me to mull over costumes from the last couple years, all done on the cheapest of cheap with indispensible visits to the local thrift shop.

2004 Nuyorican gigolo circa 1982
2003 Johnny Cash (basically a rehash of Zorro minus grease pencil moustache w/ guitar & 70s Elvis belt buckle added)
2002 Zorro
2001 Self-Absorbed (dozens of O-Celo sponges duct-taped to torso & limbs)
2000 Astro-turf man
1999 Two-Headed man
1998 70s Aquaman (as drawn by Jim Aparo- those green tights were a bitch)

Cap, have you got "Castor & Pollux"? That's very good too.

BTW, is that your sheepdog pictured at JC? If so you're an even braver man than I realized!

That is Rufus, Walter, and he's a real cupcake. He can be grouchy at times but he knows who the alpha male is at chez Hate. We got him at the dog pound; not the APL where we got an Airedale before but the county joint where they bring these vicious pit/rot/german shepard hybrid strays in on a leash that really is a crowbar. Those curs should be capped on sight but there the Rufe-man was in a cage with his hair pretty much in Sheep-dreads looking like a goofball. I asked what the hell he was doing there and they said somebody must've ditched him. He was well-behaved (would sit and lay down on command) so after they nutted him we took him and it's all good. Mrs Hate does the hard job of keeping snarls out of his coat; its been a long time since he last had a puppy cut. Airedales are still my favorite breed but it's been good for us.

Thanks for the rec; I'm on it.

"And if I was in a Halloween band . . . probably Fugazi reincarnate as a 60s R&B group."

Oh man. This is my dream. I fantasize about being in a Fugazi cover band with backup singers and horns, synchornized dancing, matching outfits and tambourines. You'd be scared if you knew how often that vision went through me 'ead.

Some other recent pick-ups that might make it into the rotation tonight:

Gelb/Oliveros/Reasohn/Leandre, "The Space Between"
Sharp, "Cryptid Fragments"
Miller/Yoshide, "Time Travel"

Of course that should have been "Muller/Yoshihide....."

i'm on a record a friend lent me
sonic youth goo demo's
they had a halloween thing on the cover of bad moon rising no!

but i feel more satie mood somehow

"This is my dream. I fantasize about being in a Fugazi cover band with backup singers and horns, synchornized dancing, matching outfits and tambourines. You'd be scared if you knew how often that vision went through me 'ead."

Damn, I had no idea other people considered this. A new phenomena! I didn't get as far as costume, but I already worked out an Ike&Tina-esque version of Waiting Room!

Some day . . .

"The Recedents Zombie Bloodbath on the Isle of Dogs..."

Hey Dan (or anyone). Are any Recedents recordings actually still available anywhere?

I dare say I could find a copy if I rustled round a few local fleamarkets, Walt. Just had a look on Google and it does seem to be unavailable everywhere. Nato discs have really gone underground! The only other Recedents I know of is Barbeque Strut (also on Nato), though I haven't got a copy. I could put you in touch with Mike Cooper though, who would probably know more about this than me.