More Halloween Mixes

An old friend of mine has cooked up a couple of crazy halloween mixes. From Howlin' Wolf to the Butthole Surfers, The Cramps to the Ravonettes to Tom Waits and The Ramones, these pretty much cover the whole spectrum of halloween rock and roll. Guaranteed to scere the sheets off the wee ones when they come beggin' at your door.

Coretta's Halloween

Rockin' Halloween 

Halloween modcasts of yesteryears

By now I know you all have listened to last week's excellent modcast. So, here's a treat for you, you can get all spooked out by past Halloween modcasts.


Modcast #144: Something Wicked This Way Comes



Modcast #107: Monsters A-Go-Go!



Modcast #73: It's Spooky Modoween

More For Halloween - The Aquabats

THE AQUABATS - FASHION ZOMBIES!

I don't want there to be no doubt/I live in a haunted house

Zombina And The Skeletones - Dracula Blood

It Isn't Halloween without The Fuzztones

Fuzztones -- The Witch


Fuzztones -- Ward 81

Modcast #181: Monsters Rule O.K. (Halloween 2010)

Ken from The Shingles is once again at the wheel of this scary Halloween hearse and he's steering it on a creepy course sure to give you a bit of a tingle up and down your spine.  Creepy, kooky, ooky and downright groovy, this year's Halloween modcast has it all.

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1. The Viewers - Monsters Rule O.K. (The Monster Club: The Original Soundtrack, 1980)
2. Boss Martians - She's Creepy! (13 Evil Tales, 1996)
3. Legendary Invisible Men - Headless Man (The Spooky Swingin' Sounds Of Kreepsville Manor, 2006)
4. T.S.O.L. - Blackmagic (Change Today?, 1984)
5. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Candy Man (Tinderbox, 1986)
6. Stan Ridgway - Camouflage (The Big Heat, 1986)
7. Deadbolt - Tiki Man (Tiki Man, 1994)
8. Monty Python - All Things Dull And Ugly (Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, 1980)
9. Roger Klug - Witch From Hell (More Help For Your Nerves, 2009)
10. Fred Schneider - Monster (Fred Schneider & the Shake Society, 1984)
11. Jonathan Coulton - Re: Your Brains (Thing a Week III, 2006)
12. The Damned - Grimly Fiendish (Single, 1985)
13. Madness - Grey Day (7, 1981)
14. Bollock Brothers - Horror Movies (Single, 1983)
15. The Who - Dr.Jekyll & Mr Hyde (B-Side to "Magic Bus" single, 1968)
16. Dinah Washington - My Man's An Undertaker (Single, 1953)

Bonus Modcast: Partying with The Parties

One of my favorite bands over the past couple years has been The Parties out of San Francisco. Their sound is rooted in sixties pop music and incorporates heavily from the mod/freakbeat part of that catalog. The Parties latest album Coast Garde is no departure, but rather like a jetliner on a standard rate of incline, ever since taking off the band just keeps climbing higher and higher.

So, I got a chance to interview the band while they were putting the final touches on the album and that has lead to this special bonus modcast. You'll hear from all the band about the album, about their journey to this pioint and where they're headed from here, as well as their thoughts on what mod means today, what the state of music is like and what they're listening to for inspiration.

The band has a sort of sweetness to their sound, something I previously described as "a nice warm, beach like feeling," which maybe is a reflection of their California locale. This time around the music is richer, more lush, more perfectly honed to accent the lyrics.

On first listen I thought maybe there was an intentional theme here, but lead singer Jeremy Powers says that is just a happy coincidence. No matter, the songs are all about girls, and there seems to me to be an arc from the swaggering opening tracks about new love, to the middle tracks about deep love, to the final more sober tracks where love's mountain top high disappears.

The album's single, "Lets Call It Love" opens with an easy, breezy feeling, and a soft psychadelic undercurrent that gives it a bit of an ephemeral quality that nicely compliments the lyrics. It's an excellent mix of jangly guitars, tight rythyms, and more harmonies than you can shake a tambourine at. Along with the second track, "Can't Seem To Get My Mind Off Of You", it gets the album off to a pretty upbeat start.

The sound and the songs mature with the swirly, psychadelic "Twenty-Four", a song that could have come right out of the Pretty Things sessions in the late sixties as easily as it could have stood alongside Rain Parade's paisly underground tracks in the eighties. By the time you get to the last couple of tracks, "When The Weekend's Over", the love is lost and the sobering lonliness is all that's left. At last there's only the catchy vocal harmonies of You Ruined Me, a shorty, jaunty tune that has an infectious rhthym and melody and is fast becoming one of my favorites.

The band's love affair with sixties bands like The Who and The Creation are clear, especially in the guitar driven bridges of "Let's Call It Love" and "Twenty-Four". There's also a real sense of melody throught not unlike that of The Zombies and The Kinks.

For all that Coast Garde is a big step forward for The Parties, it also finds the band firmly, and comfortably, settled into the sound of the sixties. Which, at least for me, is a great place to be.

• Let's Call It Love (2010)
• Interview Pt. I
• She's Gone Away (2009)
• Cold Life (2008)
• Interview Pt. II
• You Ruined Me (2010)
• Download

I want to thank The Parties for taking the time talk with me, I think you'll enjoy the itnerview. Their new album, Coast Garde is due out on November 2nd on the Rainbow Quartz label. More info and purchase here.

Modcast #180: Some Hits Hurt

So, lately I've been on a Three O'Clock kick listening to the band's back catalog over and over and over. I've even come to appreciate what was probably their last great song "Her Head's Revolving". Which was of course the last album featuring the band's core lineup. Like all good music does it touched a nerve and then led me on a little musical jaunt. It's one of those jaunts that is probably best listened to rather than explained. I mean, how do you adequately explain all the cool music on tap for you this week from Shonen Knife to 999, The Marigolds to Mooney Suzuki? You don't. The best you can do is listen to it and simply enjoy.


Three O'Clock -- Her Head's Revolving
White Rabbits -- The Plot (2007)
Vibrators -- DNA Robot (2010)
Shonen Knife -- Animal Song (1993)
The Ace -- If You're Out There (2010)
The Cute Lepers -- Some Hits Hurts (2009)
The Marigolds -- Sticks And Stones (1985)
Cuban Heels -- Downtown (1978)
999 -- Action (1978)
Gary Valentine (The Know) -- I Like Girls (1980)
Mooney Suzuky -- Yeah You Can (2000)



Shonen Knife -- It's A New Find


999 -- Emergency

Download

Modcast #179: Get Your Kicks Back In '66

Welcome to Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World, sixties style.

Download Modcast #179: Get Your Kicks Back in '66

I've cranked up the way back machine and am taking you back to that glorious year of 1966 for you to get your mod kicks with some of the year's best 1966 was a pretty great year, the Soviets "landed" (it crashed) a satellite rocket on the moon, the first artificial heart was put into to some lucky guy, the supremes --justices that is-- gave us our miranda rights and the average bloke was bringing home a whopping $7,000 a year, a house cost only twice that, gas was a measly $.32, but a Parker pen cost $12. Go figure. In sports an upstart boxer named Cassius Clay started floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee, the Packers were champs in the NFL's first ever Superbowl, the Astrodome rose up over Houston, England took home the World Cup, the Orioles swept the World Series, and Billie Jean King won the women's, not the men's, bracket at Wimbeldon.

Meanwhile the world was torn asunder by war. A little thing known as the British Invasion was in full swing, and Americans were loving it. They couldn't get enough. If you had a British accent wore matching smart outfits or miniskirts you pretty much had it made in the states. As far as American homegrown music there was just a bit of that as well. This time around I'm not getting into much in the way of soul music from '66, other than the fantastic Mr. Floyd, but there was damn good soul produced that year. Instead, I'm giving a smorgasboard of R&B and garage rock for the most part. Enjoy.


Paul Revere & The Raiders -- Kicks
Doc Thomas Group -- I'll Be Doggone
MC5 -- Baby, Please Don't Go
Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs -- Lil' Red Riding Hood
The Seeds -- Rollin' Machine
The Standells -- Summer In The City
? & The Mysterians -- 96 Tears
The Monkees -- Saturday's Child
The Rolling Stones -- Under My Thumb
The Kinks -- 'Til The End Of The Day
Eddie Floyd -- Knock On Wood

The Standells - Dirty Water


Paul Revere & The Raiders - The Great Airplane Strike

The Modcast Early Years - The First Five Shows

I started this modcast back in 2006 and have produced hundreds of shows to date. As you might expect the show has changed over time. I've learned a lot about how to produce a better program (at least I hope so!). Still, the music remains the same.

In case you missed them the first time around here are the first five episodes of the modcast.

Modcast #1: The 80s Mod Scene
The Modsters -- Why Aren't You Dreaming?
Chardon Square -- Lost in the Cartoons
The Question -- Shall Be Love
The Key -- Feeling Special
The Leopards -- Psychadelic Boy
The Targets -- Sax Man
Manual Scan -- Nothing Can Be Everything
The Three O'Clock -- Jetfighter
Modest Proposal -- Seen Your Face Before
Mod Fun -- Live in Yourself

Download Modcast #1


Modcast #2: It's a Mod, Ska and even Garage Rock Kinda World
The Targets – Searching for a Scene
The Jetz – Moderns for a Day
The Idea – Our Way
The Untouchables – Ska Mods
Fishbone – Skankin’ to the Beat
The Untouchables – Lebanon
The Question – Stare you Down
The Pandoras – Stop Pretending

Download Modcast #2


Modcast #3: In the Garage
The Prisoners -- Better in Black
Thee Headcoatees -- Don't Try and Tell Me
Yard Trauma -- Some People
Chesterfield Kings -- Are You Gonna Be There
The Pandoras -- The Way It's Gonna Be
Gravedigger V -- Spooky
Cynics -- Waste of Time
Fleshtones -- A Hand for the Bands
Salvation Army -- Going Home
Tell-Tale Hearts -- Won't Need Yours
Unclaimed -- Run From Home
The Prisoners -- Maybe I Was Wrong

Download Modcast #3


Modcast #4: Mod Progeny: What Hath We Wrought?
Mando Diao - Cut the Rope
Solarflares - Unsociable
The Chartists - I'll be Leaving Here
Robbers on High Street - Amanda Green
Ordinary Boys - Life Will be the Death of Me
Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
Second Saturday - The Chase
The Made - Not a Piece of Cake
The Pills - Fighting Words
The Walnut Dash - Your Mum
The Platforms - Walk of Shame

Download Modcast #4


Modcast #5: It's The Power Pop Stupid
Vapors--Prisoners
Pointed Sticks -- Apologies
The Times -- Whatever Happened To Thamesbeat
Rick Springfield -- Jesse's Girl
The Nerves -- One Way Ticket
Breakaways (w/Paul Collins --Walking Out On Love
Plimsouls -- Everyday Things
The Romantics --What I Like About You
Elvis Costello -- Moods for Moderns
Material Issue -- International Pop Overthrow
Nick Lowe -- Cruel To Be Kind
Squeeze -- Cool For Cats

Download Modcast #5

The Risk - Inside Straight (Live from 1986)

The Risk - Inside Straight (Live at New Sounds Of The Sixties, 1986)