Vic's Picks: Our Favorite Halloween Music
Vic's Picks has the music-loving staff of Victrola sharing our bests, our favorites, our recent discoveries, and our musical memories.
For this edition of Vic’s Picks, we asked the Victrola team for music that scares them, and scary music they love. They did not disappoint.
SJ:
I'm scared of super intense crunchy experimental noise metal rock type stuff. Like I get it, it's cool and different, but I am afraid. Not even my earbuds can protect me from the levels of overstimulation that music provides.
My favorite halloween music is spooky psychobilly rock like the Cramps. The band Colfax Speed Queen in Denver has that kinda vibe too!! I also love any Halloween song that has spooky maniacal laughter in it. Or weird sound effects. Ambient spooky vibe is always cool.
Nicole:
"Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt Kickers. My neighbor used to date a radio DJ and when she would babysit us, we would "prank" call him and request "Monster Mash," no matter what time of year and 95% of the time, he would play it. It always makes me smile when I hear it.
Andrew W:
I wrote about this last year, but it remains true this year too: the first music I remember being afraid of was the Wu-Tang Clan. This wasn't due to the music itself--which, can be plenty scary to a seven-year-old--but because I had been told by a childhood accomplice that the guys in Wu-Tang were regularly killing people with samurai swords and making songs about it, while somehow evading an international manhunt. I suspect no music will scare me as much as the theoretical music I imagined Wu-Tang making while committing non-theoretical murders.
For music that is supposed be scary, I reach for stuff like the Texas hardcore legends Power Trip, whose music sounds to me like riding across the River Styx in a speedboat loaded with a nuclear bomb. It whips.
Jamie:
It's actually a song by the Pointer Sisters. Typing that just made me laugh. Loud. Alone. And then start shaking uncontrollably. It's called "Pinball Number Count" and was the soundtrack to an animation bit on Sesame Street. Terrified me. Still don't think I could actively go search for it and willingly listen to it. Let me be clear: It's not my favorite. It takes every single negative emotion and puts it into the mouths of what's arguably one of the most important female genre-defying vocal groups ever. It's my hell on earth. Don't listen to it. It'll haunt you until your last day.
Editor's note: Because we can't resist, here it is:
Mark:
The theme song from Unsolved Mysteriesis probably the spookiest music because I remember being fascinated at the stories told on the show as a kid. Still creeps me out!
Noah:
"When the sun goes down and the moon comes up, I turn into a teenage goo goo muck." Does anything sound more Halloween then those lyrics with some psycho-billy twang?!? I love the Cramps.
Lydia:
Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House. It's a classic, I have it on vinyl! My favorite band (Phish) played the full album for Halloween one year & I was there, it was awesome!
Amy:
Any scary movie soundtrack will do the trick: Halloween, Jaws, Psycho, The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist. There are so many great ones, but my favorite is “Dies Irae” from The Shining. Since I saw The Shining at such a young age (unbeknownst to my parents), the impact was deep and long-lasting. Just hearing the music still gives me chills.
Josh:
"Thriller" always does the job for me.
