31 Days of "Spooky" Music Day 2: Theme to "Wellington Paranormal"

      Thanks to HBO Max, this year I discovered the spin off to "What We Do In The Shadows" (the original film, not the also quite excellent FX series)" "Wellington Paranormal".

     I have talked about this show a little in one of my Weekend Magic videos in the What Got Me Through The Week segment, but briefly put: the series follows two members of the Wellington Police who appeared briefly in the original film. Presented as a Cops-esque documentary series: Officers O'Leary and Minogue, along with their sergeant, Maaka, keep the people of Wellington, New Zealand safe from all manner of spirits, demons, aliens, and the living dead... sort of.

     This is about the theme though, and for me the theme song hits all of the right notes to make it onto a Halloween night playlist. For me it contains a lot of the same elements that make the themes to shows like "The X-Files" and "Gravity Falls" also Halloween must-haves.

Here is the theme from series one:

Here is the series two version:

Pick Three

A few weeks back, a listener asked the hosts of “The Weekly Geek” what their three favourite albums were. This is of course not a question a person can just answer off the top of their heads, and indeed may just be impossible to answer. Can you pick your three favourite albums of all time? I have trouble even picking my ten favourite winter movies.

What the hosts ended up doing were picking the three albums they would want to expose to a stranger to. This stuck in my rather cluttered mind, and has now come back with answers. The three albums I would suggest that you listen to are:

No More Kings (2007)

While there is a lot of great stuff on their second album, “And the Flying Boombox:”, No More Kings' first album is still my favourite. From the zombie-ness of “Zombie Me” to the love letter to “Knight Rider” that is “Michael (Jump In)”, their original album is just fun, and cheerful, and listening to it never fails to make me smile (the same can be said for “And the Flying Boombox” as well).

I originally discovered No More Kings through Pandora. I listen to Pandora a lot while I am writing, and it was while I was working on Mallville that I first heard them. The station I was listening to had artists like Jonathan Coulton, Bareknaked Ladies, Bowling for Soup, and Weezer as its basis, and as I was busily typing away I suddenly realized that the song playing was about the living dead; it was “Zombie Me”.

After hearing a couple more of their songs, “Michael (Jump In)” and I believe “The Grand Experiment” , I rushed out to Dimple Records and bought their album (new, not used). Aside from having a good sound, the lyrics of the songs appeal to my inner geek (as well as my outer geek) with references to everything from “The Smurfs” to “Ghistbusters 2” to “Peanuts” sprinkled throughout them.

Sadly there is no video for “Zombie Me”, but the video for “Sweep the Leg” is a truly awesome, if long, vid which brings me back to the Michael Jackson style of music video production. Check out the appearance by Mr. Belding from “Saved by the Bell” in the beginning



Apocalyptica: 7th Symphony (2010)

I know, I've already babbled about them a couple of days ago, but that was about their sixth album, which is good, but it's no “7th Symphony”. I do not have all of their albums, but of what I do have, this one is my favourite. From the awesome rock of “End of Me” (featuring Gavin Rossdale of Bush fame) and “Not Strong Enough” (featuring Brent Smith) to the instrumental piece “The Shadow of Venus” (which appears on the deluxe version) which is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard, this album is fantastic from start to finish. Even the song “Bring Them to Light”, which is exactly the sort of screamy heavy metal that I don't like has grown on me.

I first discovered this group while listening to a political podcast that was using some of the tracks from “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” and “Inquisition Symphony” as transitional music between segments. Hearing Metallica's “Nothing Else Matters” played beautifully on the cello got my attention to the point that I had to go to that show's web site and see who this group was.

I love music done in unusual styles, at that point I had already had an album of Metallica music done on classical piano (Scott D. Davis' “Pianotarium”), and could not pass up a chance to get some more Metallica done in the wrong style, so when I happened to see “Inquisition Symphony” while looking for something to use a coupon on at Borders, I snatched it up.

If you listen to their early work, where there is just the cellos and almost all the songs are covers, and then compare it to their last two albums where it is all original music and they have added a drummer and vocals, you can really hear how this group has matured from simply making metal beautiful to making it epically so.

The video I've chosen to provide as a demonstration is “Broken Pieces” which features Lacey Sturm of Flyleaf.



Flyleaf: Memento Mori (2009)

“Memento Mori” is Flyleaf's second album, and while the band's Christian background shows A LOT more strongly on this album (on the first album, someone who knew nothing about the group could easily not realize that this is Christian Music), they do not consider themselves a Christian group. I'm not sure why they feel the need to distance themselves from their faith (especially since the we're-not-a-Christian-group argument seems a little harder to defend given the lyrics on this album), but I don't really care because I love their sound.

I find listening to this album to be very uplifting, now whether that's due to the spirituality behind the lyrics or now, I cannot really say. I really like the tracks “In the Dark”, “Beautiful Bride”, and “Swept Away”, but my absolute favourite on the album is “Arise”.

“Arise” is the song I was heard in my head when thinking about how to end “Mallville”, and I consider it to be a sort of unofficial closing theme to the story. It is probably no surprise that this is my favourite of all of Flyleaf's songs, only possibly edged out by the awesome remix of it by Ben Moody on the “Remember to Live” EP that came out last year.

I discovered Flyleaf because Dimple Records was pushing their original EP at the register back when it came out in 2007. The clerk pushed it as being similar to Evanescence, saying that “she screams while she sings”. The idea of screamy singing did not really appeal to me, but it was also only two bucks, and I'm always happy to try something new, especially if it's cheap. I loved all of the songs on the EP, and bought the original full album twice (the second time because it was re-released with acoustic versions of some of the songs).

There is no video for “Arise”, or In the Dark”, or “Swept Away”, and the video for “Beautiful Bride”, like most of their Memento Mori videos is extremely WTF-y, so I have chosen the video for “Again”. The video is still WTF-y, but not to the point that it may distract you from the music like some of the others might.



So there you have it; the three albums I would most recommend you give a chance. Are they my all time favourites? Would I still choose these three albums five years from now? Ten? Not necessarily. I could never narrow down my CD collection to a mere 3 that are the best; heck, these three weren't even easy picks (with the exception of “7th Symphony”). Even once decided on picking a No More Kings album, it took a lot of thought to not choose “And The Flying Boombox”, and for a while there the third album was going to be the “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” soundtrack (which is every bit as awesome as the film... for the most part)

This tends to guarantee that I get no feedback, but I”m going to ask anyway. What would your three be?

Alright, that's enough babbling for now. Until next time, remember that the first cut is not always the deepest; in fact it's usually shallow and hesitant since it takes a few stabs to really build up your confidence in what you are doing.

No, that's just creepy, and way too long.

My Halloween Playlist

On a recent episode of The Weekly Geek a listener asked about suggestions for a Halloween playlist. While I assume the questioner was asking about one for a party I decided to do a rundown of my own Halloween playlist. Keep in mind that this list was not made with a party in mind, but instead with the idea of it being played in the background on Halloween night while dealing with the trick or treaters in my front yard grave yard, and therefore cannot have cursing in it. If you have any suggested songs for me to add to this list, please let me know.

So without further ado, here is Void Munashii's Halloween playlist presented in more or less alphabetical order:

Theme from “The Addams Family”
“Ain't No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant
Theme from “Angel”
Theme from “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”
Theme from “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”
Opening theme from the “Army of Darkness” soundtrack
“Army of Darkness” techno remix
Theme from “Blade Runner”
Theme from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
“The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati” by Rose & the Arrangement
“Cool” from the “Hellsing” soundtrack
“Core” from the “Paranoia Agent” soundtrack
“Creepy Doll” by Jonathan Coulton
“The Crypt Jam” from “Tales From the Crypt”
“Danse Macabre”
“Dead Man's Party” by Oingo Boingo
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by “Charlie Daniels Band”
“Destati” from the “Kingdom Hearts” soundtrack
“Don't Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult
Theme from “Doctor Who” circa 1974
Theme from “The Exorcist”
“Eyeball” from the “Cowboy Bebop” soundtrack
“Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr.
“Ghost Riders in the Sky” by The Outlaws
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” by The Barenaked Ladies
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” by The Friendly Indians
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” from “The Haunted Mansion” movie soundtrack
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” techno remix
Theme from “Halloween”
Various pieces of music and dialog from “The Haunted Mansion” ride at Disneyland
“Haunt You Everyday” by Weezer
“Heffalumps and Woozles” from the “Winnie the Pooh” soundtrack
“I Put A Spell On You” by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
“In the Hall of the Mountain King”
“In the Sky (Ghost Riders” by Johnny Cash
“Lil Red Riding Hood” by Bowling for Soup
“Lil Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
“Love Potion Number 9” by The Searchers
“Man With The Hex” by The Atomic Fireballs
“March of the Dead” from the “Army of Darkness” soundtrack
“Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” from “The Little Shop of Horrors” soundtrack
“The Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt Kickers
“Monster Mash” by Jessie Howard
Theme from “A Nightmare on Elm Street”
“Nightmare on My Street” by Wil Smith
“O Fortuna”
“Object Definition” from the “Paranoia Agent” soundtrack
Theme from “The Omen”
“Pet Sematary” by The Ramones
Theme from “Phantom of the Opera”
“Phantom of the Opera” techno version
Theme from “Psycho”
Theme to “Puppetmaster”
“Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley
“RE: Your Brains” by Jonathan Coulton
“Requiem - Dies Irae”
“Requiem – Tuba Mirium”
“Shoot the Zombie” by Songs To Wear Pants To
“A Silhouette of Doom” by Ennio Morricone
“Somebody's Watching Me” by Morris Day
“Sorcerer's Apprentice”
“Spooks of Halloweentown” from the “Kingdom Hearts” soundtrack
“Symphonie Fantastique – Dream of the Witches' Sabbath”
“This is Halloween” from the “Kingdom Hearts” soundtrack
“This is Halloween” from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
“This is Halloween” by Panic at the Disco
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
“Thunderbird Suite”
“The Timewarp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (save your Tim Bisley-esque rants, please)
“Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor”
“Tombstone” by Suzannne Vega
“The Twilight of the Gods – The Immolation of the Gods”
Theme from “The Twilight Zone”
“Yo Pumpkin Head” from the “Cowboy Bebop” soundtrack
Theme from “The X-Files”
“Zombie Me” by No More Kings

Note: You will notice that “Rock Lobster” and “Clap for the Wolfman” appear nowhere on this list despite it appearing on pretty much every “Halloween” CD around; this is because there is nothing even remotely Halloween about them. Please keep that in mind when making suggestions. Thanks

VM

Random Thoughts: Devil Music

So here I sit at work; I'm listening to my Halloween playlist on my iPod when “Devil Went Down to Georgia” starts playing. The song made me think of Charlie Daniels, which made me think of the whole stink he made about his song being used in a boss battle against the devil in Guitar Hero 3.

Daniels' problem with his song being used in GH3 is that the devil can win. He also takes issue with the “monsters” that appear on stage. That “controversy” over that made me think of the term “Devil Music”. This is how my mind works.

It is true that some rock musicians do use symbols of the devil, demons, etc in their songs, videos, and stage shows, but why? People have been accusing rock music of being from the devil pretty much from the get-go, right? I mean Elvis never used severed goat heads on stage or anything, but he still got attacked by the sort of people who throw that accusation around.

Looking at more modern rockers, like Marilyn Manson, who do use that sort of imagery I have to ask, were the prudes right all along or are the Manson's of the world doing it because they are being accused of it anyway? After all, if someone is going to treat as if you are guilty of something, you might as well be. At the very least, you can get a rise out of them.

Did the people who feared “Devil Music” cause it to come into being, or were they right all along? Just a random thought.