Both song titles below seem to fall in with a Halloween theme. I can't speak to the subject matter or the lyrics, I'll have to look into that. They both have cool intros and start with a good scream. Sets the mood. Stretch first.
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A friend posted a video on Facebook of a string sextet playing the Dead Kennedy's "California Über Alles". Just the thought of it made me want to hate it. I did not. There's a few reasons for that. First off, I've never been all that into the Dead Kennedys. Jello Biafra's voice just ain't my thing. I don't know what it is. It has nothing to do with a string sextet, but hear me out. Biafra's voice has become less grating to me over the years, and I know they were a good (perhaps great) band and all of that, but I still can only take his voice in small doses.
Now, about this video. It reinforced what I really already knew, but made it much more obvious. The Dead Kennedys were tight, thought provoking at times, and good at getting you all kinds of riled up. But this cover really shows what the other elements distract from. The Dead Kennedys were good at making really good songs. If you know the song you will hear, amplified, the one part of the song that often gets missed. It sounds sinister with strings, like the soundtrack to some sinister movie. And it's not the strings. Listen again to the Dead Kennedy's version and see if you don't hear all of the sinisterishness.
There's another video linked below, but before we get to that, one more thing about the version above. These guys are not from the UK, or the US. They're from Brazil. WTF, right? The other video below is even more WTF. A school orchestra, comprised of primary and secondary students playing "California Über Alles" at a benefit for two ill students. Weird enough in and of itself. The kicker? The school is in Subotica, Serbia, and the audience has more than it's share of seniors and middle age people.
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You just gotta know that at some point in the eighties or nineties, there was some college radio DJ somewhere that just thought his shit did not stink because he pieced a five song set of the songs below. Oh yeah, he's a hero all right, no Boingo for him. He stepped out of that booth at the end of his shift practically beating his chest. There's a chance he got laid that night. A couple decades later, he's got the corner office and he's wondering what went haywire.
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The only thing that ever kept me from liking the Dead Kennedys was Jello Biafra's voice. I couldn't stand it. I can tolerate it now after years of hearing it, and gradually giving more weight to the songs themselves. It just hit me tonight that, rather than the punk downer protest songs that they are, these songs hit me as good time music. Forever linked to a span of about five years when it seemed everybody had them, and people were still making a sufficient amount of trouble, with these as part of the soundtrack.
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It's the night you've been prepping for and some of the more hardcore of you are cracking your knuckles and getting ready to run this whole thing right off the road. Hat's off to you and your soon to be disheveled costume, hat's off to you and your miserable day after. You are warriors...of some sort. Here's three more numbers all from the same era, all with the same title, but definitely different factions.
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Are you suffering from Halloween fatigue yet? Tough shit. Tonight I'm lazy, and that trumps your eye rolling. Just pretend you're at some show back in the day when all of these bands happened to include songs titled "Halloween" in their sets. Technically, chronologically, not possible, but I bet you could link all of these bands in some sort of seven degrees type what have you. Some of them shared stages. Close enough.
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Oh hell yeah. King Khan and the BBQ Show's "Zombie" would be good enough for the night, but this post at Indie Rock Cafe [sic] has a few others worth hearing. There had to be something good, because there's fifty songs. You might find some that you like more than others. I picked the ones below because they all have some neat guitar, and at least they have some umph. Halloween music has to have some of that, or at least sound spooky or creepy. Some of the songs in the post are are all lah-de-dah with acoustic guitars, hand claps, and other such off topic nonsense. You know what scared me most about the post? Clicking on the Budos Band song and hearing the first few bars. Immediately thinking, "Oh holy shit, I had no idea they'd gotten so sucky". When I came to, I realized that it was just that their link was dead, so the player automatically advanced to Belle and Sebastian. An't no ghoul got time for that.
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An old friend passed away this morning. There's too much to write about him to get started now. There are a few songs that I associate with him. "Wild Weekend" by the Rockin' Rebels is one, and "California Über Alles" by the Dead Kennedys is another. Pretty different songs, you'd probably agree. He was that type of guy. So here's the two of them. You'll have to go through a couple hoops to download "Wild Weekend," but, really, the payoff is the Dead Kennedys' stuff. There's a few different versions of "California Über Alles;" from an early demo, to the 45 version, LP version and a remix. Now before you start turning up your nose at the thought of a remix of that song, give it a listen. I'm always suspect of remixes of anything close to punk rock, but this one has some kind of punch. It would work well at your next eviction party.
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