It’s been a decade(!) since my last Mix Six, and even longer than that since a Mix Six with a Halloween theme. This year seems like a good time to revisit a long-dormant feature on Popdose, and one with a genuine throwback quality, since the post contains something that’s fallen by the wayside in terms of its convenience and controversy: the mp3. Yes, that scary file that changed the music industry. We’re also living in a time of immense change that can feel hellish at times, so why not embrace the doom and enjoy six tunes (with fun little soundbites in between) that’ll make your Halloween slappin’
“Hell,” Squirrel Nut Zippers (1996)
Who could have guessed (or bothered to guess) that this song, released in June (June!) of 1996, would become a Halloween classic 30 years later? Sure, someone lurking in the murky bowels of an AOL chat room probably called it an insta-classic back then, to mixed reactions. But for the rest of us in the know, it was met with plenty of ghoulish delight. It certainly was for me when I first heard it on the radio. It still brings a cavity-filled grin to my melting face whenever I dust off the CD (Wait. What? Compact Disc!) and plop it into my Sony CD player from that era. (Yes, it still works just fine. Thanks for asking.) If you’re in a gallows-humor mood, sing along:
Now the D and A and the M and the N and the AAnd the T and the I-O-NLose your faceLose your nameThen get fitted for a suit of flames
“Goo Goo Muck,” The Cramps (1981)
The ’80s weren’t really “The ’80s” yet when this song came out in ‘81. If you’re an old fossil who was in high school back then (like the guy writing this old fossil of a Popdose feature), you may remember what kind of music ruled suburban high schools. No? You don’t know? Google’s AI hasn’t summarized the past for you in a neat, easy-to-read format so you can sound smart around your fellow humans? Okay, I’ll tell you. If you listened to bands like The Cramps at a typical suburban U.S. high school in 1981, you probably kept it to yourself, or shared it only with your fellow freaks and geeks. One listen and it’s easy to hear why this song wasn’t sharing space with the Journey, Van Halen, AC/DC, and REO Speedwagon tunes that dominated the airwaves at the time. It’s far too ’60s-sounding, and the album cover just screams “Not Safe for Jocko Homos.”
“Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps),” David Bowie (1980)
For David Bowie, this album was a hit in his native UK, and even in the U.S., it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200. Critics loved it. His record company poured a ton of money into the video for “Ashes to Ashes,” and the single knocked ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” out of the #1 spot in the UK. You’d think that kind of success, plus inspiring what became known as the New Romantic movement (most folks just called it New Wave), would make Bowie feel relevant. Nope. He felt Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) was a stiff, as lifeless as a corpse with rigor mortis, so he went from the funk of feeling irrelevant to funky Top 40 guy with Let’s Dance three years later. How wrong he was about Scary Monsters. It’s a sleeper, but contains some brilliant songs.
“Tear You Apart,” She Wants Revenge (2004)
I caught these cats at the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena in 2025, and they were fantastic live. Full disclosure: this is the only song of theirs I really know, and since I’d never seen a video of them, I had no idea what they looked like until I saw them in 2025. In 2004, I fully expected the band to look like Kraftwerk-style robots since, as I joked to my wife and kid back then, this song sounds like a robot falling in love with a woman and going berserk. How wrong I was. Still, it has a clinical, David Cronenberg body-horror quality that makes it a perfect fit for Halloween.
“Heads Will Roll,” Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (2009)
Remember those wonderful early days of the internet (back when it was likely spelled “Internet”)? An artist would finish a record, ship it off to the CD factory, and crank up the PR machine to build buzz and (hopefully) robust sales, only to have some asshole leak it online before release day. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the victims of that particular horror movie. Or, as the band’s Wikipedia page puts it, in rather understated fashion: “The album was slated for release in April 2009, but an internet leak of the material occurred in February, much to the band’s dismay.” Dismay? More like cue Karen O’s screaming in “Art Star.”
“(Everyday Is) Halloween,” Ministry (1984)
Before Ministry evolved (devolved?) into the industrial Ministry we know today, they had this synth-pop earworm that’s perfect for Halloween. I mean, c’mon, it’s got “Halloween” right there in the title. Not sure if Al Jourgensen was trying to create his own underground holiday hit, but at the time, he was definitely dressing up his act with a faux-British accent. Hey, if you can’t pretend to be someone else on Halloween, what good is Halloween?
And with that, Popdosers, I hope you have a terrifyingly good time this Halloween.
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