Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Black Sunshine” — White Zombie (1992)

Gripping the wheel, his knuckles went white with desire. The wheels of his Mustang exploding on the highway like a slug from a .45. True death: 400 horsepower of maximum performance piercing the night… This is Black Sunshine. Iggy Pop delivers the spoken-word intro to White Zombie’s classic 1992 tune Black Sunshine, a song ostensibly…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Frankenstein” — The Edgar Winter Group (1972)

Well, duhr… Frankenstein is one of those quintessentially overplayed classic rock songs in that so many people know the riff and so few know the actual name of the song (let alone the artist performing it). And it really is one lumbering monster of a track, featuring Edgar Winter on about 8 zillion instruments (organ,…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Fear Of The Dark” — Iron Maiden (1992)

Well this one is a HUGE surprise, huh? I’ve made no attempt at obfuscating my love of Maiden. They’ve been my all-time favorite metal band since 1983, when I bought Piece of Mind on cassette and wore that sucker completely out. That’s all I needed. My brother had The Number of the Beast on vinyl…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Down In The Park” — Foo Fighters (1996)

When I think of Halloween, I immediately conjure up images of dystopian futures in which sadistic android overlords called Machmen torture remaining humans by forcing them to compete in a survival games against rape and murder robots in an arena called “The Park”, while the Machmen sneer and enjoy the carnage from Zom-Zoms, a nearby…

We interrupt my activity on THIS blog to bring you my activity on ANOTHER blog, or: “It’s hard to believe such a calamity…”

First of all, don’t panic. Hokeyblog isn’t going anywhere. As a matter of fact, it’s never been stronger in terms of page views and visibility, so I think the whole Hokey-BRAND is moving along rather swimmingly! Although I wonder if anyone was actually panicking after reading that headline. I mean, other than my weepy Aunt Bunny… Well…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Ghost Riders In The Sky” — The Outlaws (1980)

An old cowpoke went ridin’ out one dark and windy day… I think it’s practically impossible to have grown up in post-World War II America and not have heard some iteration of Stan Jones’s 1948 cowboy classic Ghost Riders In The Sky in some capacity. It’s been covered by dozens of big name artists, from…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “UFOs, Big Rigs, and BBQ” — Mojo Nixon (1997)

Mojo Nixon is singing about UFOs, big rigs, and barbecue. Do I really need to sell this any more? Mojo freakin’ Nixon + alien encounters + 12 wheels of interstellar transport + smoked meat = ESSENTIAL Halloween tuneage. I first heard UFOs, Big Rigs, and BBQ waaaaaay back when, while playing the first-person shooter ‘Redneck…

Yay… the 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominations, or: “Who cares what you do…”

OK let’s forget the flowery prosaic intro and just jump headfirst into this year’s crop of nominees: Nirvana KISS Yes Peter Gabriel The Meters The Replacements Hall & Oates N.W.A. Linda Ronstadt LL Cool J The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Chic Deep Purple Link Wray Cat Stevens The Zombies Whoa… I’m a HUGE Kiss fan!…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Home By The Sea” — Genesis (1983)

It’s just one of those things, man. I seriously can’t stand Phil Collins. Nothing personal against the guy, but his No Jacket Required album made the calendar year 1985 a living hell for me. Sussu-freakin-sudio indeed. His voice makes my skin jump clear off my body and run straight up a tree. He did the…

Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “House Carpenter” — Nickel Creek (2002)

The haunting Scottish ballad “The Daemon Lover” ensares you with a tragic tale of a woman being visited by a past lover… who is later revealed to be The Devil. He tempts her away from her child and husband with promises of land, riches, lurid promises of dark enchantments… She kisses her child goodbye, and…