Halloween Madness 2024!

 

Is there a cooler holiday than Halloween?  Someone once said that the devil has the best tunes, and it is equally true that the best holiday songs belong to Halloween.  

Groovy Library started posting Halloween music last month, and it's Weird October at Nothin' Sez Somethin'.  (EDIT: Opium Hum just posted a creepy one: "haunted house sound effects and rasping vocals [which] morph into the more identifiable shapes of queasy, droning black metal filth.")  Jinkies!

Stinky took a broad-minded approach to his Halloween themed mix this year.  It includes the musical saw (which can sound just as creepy as the theremin) as well as an accapella "Zombie Jamboree" by The Lords, and a lovely (but spooky) piano ballad by Anna Ternheim called "Keep Me In The Dark".

Stinky's Halloween Madness 2023 is still available for download, as well as his kid-tested and uncle approved Halloween mix and my own Halloween Creeps comp from last year. 

And it's never too late (or too early) to take heed of the deeply concerned celebrities at the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative and their public service message "Do They Know It's Halloween?"

One Of Our Halloweens Is Missing

Forgot about this compilation I made, and now Halloween is over.  But you're still celebrating, right?  Eating the leftover candy, taking down the decorations, putting your masks and costumes away, but still listening to spooky soundtracks and Halloween mixtapes, right?  And you're still going to Frisco for the weekend while they install the hot tub? I knew you were!

Here's a variety of songs that share the lyrical theme of creeps, creepers, and creeping.  Not the most brilliant concept, I'll grant you.  But the songs are all good, and Stinky was kind enough to create a cover image.  I would be some kind of creep if I let that go to waste, just because I was a day late -- or maybe 364 days early for Halloween 2024!  As I write this, it's approaching the midnight hour of Dia de los Muertos.  It's the most creepiest time of the year, and who's to say we can't continue celebrating for another day or so?

Halloween MADNESS 2023!

 

It's almost Halloween!  It's beat time, it's hop time, it's goblin and ghost time!  And your ghost host with the most is Spooky Stinky LeBOO!

There's a whole lotta Halloween hijinks afoot in this creepy compilation: vampires, wolfmen, ghosts, skeletons, headless horsemen, heffalumps and woozles.  Bela Lugosi, Norman Bates, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Boris the Spider are among the ghoulish guests at this freaky fest!

The big names may impress you (The Who, The Damned, Elvis Costello, Little Richard, Brian Setzer, and Commander Cody among them).  But it's the lesser-known gems that (for me at least) make Stinky's Homemade Records a truly unique treat.  Are you familiar with the works of the King Dapper Combo?  The 69 Cats, the Gravediggers 5, and the 4 Flops? Angry Johnny and the Killbillies?  

And check out that tracklist!  Where else can you find "I Work In A Graveyard" by Norman Bates and the Showerheads? Or "Blood-Suckin' Son Of A Gun" by the Stone Coyotes? 

If all of this Halloween Madness seems a bit too intense for your holiday needs, we're still hosting a set of kid-tested and uncle approved Halloween tunes that are suitable for young listeners and the faint of heart.

If you're trick-or-treating around the blogosphere this year, be sure to stop by Groovy Library, Boss Radio 666, Down Underground, Moozler Music, La Dimension de Trastos, Themes From Great Cities, Music Hoarder's Record Vault, Fantastic Retrovision, and Opium Hum (where every day is Halloween).  You can also wax nostalgic with the swinging soundtrack to It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at PP's Halloween Heckhole!

Christmas Stinks!

 

'Tis the season to put another Stinker in your stocking with this year's holiday hootenanny from our misfit elf himself, Stinky Le Pew.

You say that all you want for Christmas is a rock 'n' roll 'lectric guitar? We've got The Ventures and Los Straitjackets.

There's young punks (Green Day, Nerf Herder, Crass) and the young at heart (Faron Young, Smokey Robinson, Julie London, Esquivel). 

Get your ho-ho-ho's with Bill Murray and Richard Cheese.  If you'd rather mope than make merry, "Christmas Is A Drag" and "Don't Believe In Christmas" are songs to soothe the savage Scrooge.

Everyone from Dion to Devo is present and accounted for at Stinky's swingin' Christmas party. Frosty, Rudolph, Santa, and the Grinch dropped by. And the grand finale is "Stinky The Little Reindeer". 

A Stinky Christmas 2020 and 2019 are still available here on the yule blog, as is my Atlanta Christmas compilation from 2018. Best wishes from me and Stinky to you and yours for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice and the New Year. Check out this classy Conan clip from the band formerly known as Christmas!

Stinky's Christmas Sound Effects!

Volume Six of Sound Effects Records is a holiday special! This will also be a special week on the blog, because Stinky has created so many Homemade Albums recently that we're doing daily posts to share them all. He joked that we could call it Stink Week (like Shark Week), and so it shall be. There's not much else going on this week, is there?

You will recognize some of these seasonal songs (and their performers), but Stinky snuck a few surprises into your sonic stocking, boys and girls! Me, I was happy to see The Angry Snowmans and Atlanta's own Ottoman Empire on the tracklist. Stinky and I are Coolies fans 4-evah. Speaking of the ATL, there's a Christmas comp of Atlanta artists way back in the blog archives.

Merry Christmas and Happy Stink Week! See ya tomorrow...

Gee Whiz, It's Stinky!

 

Stinky's here to spread Christmas cheer in the form of another eclectic Homemade Album. Santa Sabbath, Satan's Pilgrims, and Bad Religion might seem irreverent, but their inclusion is tempered with traditional tunes like "Auld Lang Syne" and "Come All Ye Faithful", plus contemporary fare such as "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Run Rudolph Run", and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". The Zombies, The Fleshtones, and Calexico stop by to add to the holiday cheer.

A Stinky Christmas 2019 is still available, so put another yule log on the fire! 2019 seems like a lifetime ago, but as I wrote back then: "Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Sankranti, Brumalia, Yule, Mithras, Giftmas, Impeachmas, or Nunya (as in 'nunya bizness'), Stinky and I wish you all the best for this holiday season and the New Year. To the readers, followers, friends and lurkers on this blog: may your days and nights be merry and bright!" How did I forget Festivus? 

Anyway, in the words of Pee Wee Herman (whose Christmas Special is a teevee classic), Feliz Na-Bla-Bla!

Have Yourself A Stinky Little Christmas!

Whether you've been naughty, nice, or a bit of both, we all deserve a little holiday cheer. Stinky is back to celebrate the reason for the season, which is (as always) music!

This time, I will not spoil the surprise by listing the artists or song titles. Suffice it to say that Stinky has assembled another diverse mix of holiday classics, obscurities, and a few Christmas curveballs. Unwrap the zip file and enjoy a special Christmas gift from Stinky. Last year's compilation of Christmas songs by Atlanta artists is still available for download.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Sankranti, Brumalia, Yule, Mithras, Giftmas, Impeachmas, or Nunya (as in "nunya bizness"), Stinky and I wish you all the best for this holiday season and the New Year. To the readers, followers, friends and lurkers on this blog: may your days and nights be merry and bright!

It's A Monster's Holiday!

Stinky to the rescue once again with a set of family-friendly Halloween songs. He compiled these for his nieces and nephews last October.

Everything here is appropriate for young listeners, and affectionately assembled with Stinky's fine-tuned taste in fine tunes.

Werewolves, vampires, Frankenstein and assorted monsters lurk within. The Cramps, The Ghouls and the Fuzztones are among the guests at this Halloween party. Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Screamin' Lord Sutch are both on the bill -- a double creature feature at the Monster Chiller Horror Theater!

My Thanksgiving mix from last year is still available and ready to be reheated. I will dish up something fresh here soon. Happy Fall to all y'all! 

A Christmas Present From Atlanta's Past

Sister Ruby Records was an Atlanta label from the early 1990's, loosely associated with the late great Eat More Records store (RIP Craig Freireich). The label focused on local artists, and issued three Christmas comps that still find their way into my CD player every year.

Participants who went on to greater success include Shawn Mullins, Michelle Malone, Kelly Hogan (a lovely "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree" with the late Gregory Dean Smalley on guitar), the late Benjamin Smoke (aka Opal Foxx), and a blowsy combo from the far side of Lake Hartwell who were about to make the #1 album of 1995.

If you knew the ATL scene in the 80's and 90's, you will recognize veterans like Amy Pike, Anne Richmond Boston, Kristen Hall, Ray Dafrico, Tommy Rivers, and several folks who arose phoenix-like from the crack pipe crucible of The Coolies. You may remember bands like Big Fish Ensemble, The Vidalias, Engine, and The Doll Squad.

There are fine versions of Christmas tunes written by Mel Torme, José Feliciano, Buck Owens, Pete Townshend, Greg Lake, Steve Earle, The Ramones, Alex Chilton, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Joni Mitchell; the Heat Miser/Snow Miser song; and (my favorite) Uncle Green's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", with a lovely little segue into "Space Oddity".  Here they are -- olden, golden, and emboldened to tackle these holiday chestnuts, as well as creating a few original Christmas songs.

Scavenged Leftovers

  
It's a bit late for a Thanksgiving themed mix. The leftovers in the fridge are almost gone, and Christmas catalogs are already arriving in the mail. I didn't finish this mix until yesterday, but I'd hate to put it in the freezer or let it go to waste.

Consider it an all-purpose holiday food mix. Many of the dishes that will be served at Christmas are the same ones that Americans enjoyed last week: turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, all types of beans, and all types of pie. 

Good golly, there are a lot of songs about cornbread! I'm serving up three of them, along with a full menu of tunes about turkey, gravy, cranberries, ham, potatoes (sweet and mashed), green beans, butter beans, collards, and more. My guests include Tom T. Hall, Wild Bill Moore, Big Boy Pete, and Dee Dee Sharp. There's a place at the table for you to join us, and I hope you've brought your appetite. Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie...