Mario Galaxy Orchestra "Overture"

My mother-in-law bought Wii a few years ago as a fun Christmas present for me and my wife.

But honestly, having little kids, it was pretty rare that we took the time to play it ourselves.

Feeling bad about it gathering dust, I did some research last winter on good Wii games for kids 3 to 5.  Santa delivered a copy of "Ready, Set, Grover" to our house.

The game is cute, and very, very basic.  It's also, secretly, a way to get the kids to exercise.  Because Elmo and Grover are doing things like jumping over mailboxes and touching their toes and running in place and such.

The kids liked it.  But it did make them curious about the other games on the shelf.

I set them up to play "Epic Mickey" but they quickly got frustrated, as the motor skills necessary are way above a small kid's level.

"You do it, Daddy."

In short order, watching Daddy or Mommy play Wii became more popular than episodes of "Curious George."  The kids will literally sit for an hour and watch one of us play a game, offering helpful back-seat-Wii-ing instructions like, "You shouldn't have let that bad guy get you, Daddy."

"Epic Mickey" actually became kinda stressful in the later stages of the game, and that's when Mario returned to my life.

The first real arcade game I ever played was a knock-off version of Donkey Kong called "Crazy Kong."  When I was 11, my friend Jay Armstrong and I would ride our bikes all the way down to the D.A.V Hall---because it was one of the few places in town with an arcade game---with a few quarters, to play.  Years later, I got Donkey Kong for Atari, and played it endlessly.

For that last month or so, my son wakes up and the first thing he says is "Daddy, can you play Super Mario Galaxy?"

Mario is now in space and there is some complicated back-story about a princess and Luma creatures and the universe and I don't worry too much about that.  I just run around and collect coins and jump on the heads of bad guys.  And whenever I complete a level, my boy does his "we completed a level!" dance.  To some typically ear-wormy Mario music.

How ear-wormy?  Even at the dinner table, my boy is humming it.  Me too.

So it wasn't a big surprise that when we asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, he said "Super Mario!"

My wife made the costume---it came out pretty darn good.

And (now that the Sox have won the World Series) there will be two of us losing a mustache tomorrow.

Hear the song on Youtube.

Fred Schneider "Monster In My Pants"

Well if this video can't improve your Monday, then nothing can.

Here is a (perhaps) forgotten Fred Schneider solo song, that does feature Kate and Cindy from The B-52s.

At the time, Fred claimed the song was just about some underwear he had, that had pictures of dinosaurs on them.

Suuuuuuuurrrrre, Fred.

Anyway, this is a good nugget for your Halloween/Party mixed tape.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Tom Waits "Whistlin' Past The Graveyard"

It doesn't really matter what Tom Waits is singing about, he always sounds like he's in Halloween mode.  But here it really applies . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Bauhaus "Bela Lugosi's Dead"

5 days to Halloween, I figured I'd post some fun songs for the holiday.  Enjoy!


Hear the song on Youtube.

Sallie Ford "Party Kids"

One year, (former mvyradio News Director and current weekend DJ) Megan Ward thought she'd be funny, and go as ME for Halloween.

She got a brown-hair wig and put on what I call "The Uniform," which consists of converse sneakers, jeans, unbuttoned flannel shirt over a t-shirt.  Or you can substitute a hoodie for the flannel.

Megan doesn't look especially like me, so only the folks who got "The Uniform" joke, figured out the costume.

Next year, Megan, I've got a better idea.

Hopefully, by fall, Sallie Ford &; The Sound Outside will have broken through, and folks may know who she is.

Check out these pictures of Sallie, and of Megan.  Maybe it's just the glasses, but I think Megan could pull this costume off!

Sallie Ford

Megan Ward

Hear the song on Youtube.

Otis Redding "Trick Or Treat"

Perhaps not surprisingly, hearing this song (even though it's really a "do you love me?" song) makes me think of Halloween.

A series of images flash through my head, about how much I enjoyed Halloween as a kid---making my costume (okay, Mom making it, with me directing), running around the neighborhood knocking on doors and dividing up and trading candy spread out on the living room floor with my sisters.

One image that really struck me funny, was thinking about my elementary school.  Holidays at Belleville Elementary were great, because somebody's mom made cupcakes and you got to push the desks into a big circle and the whole day was pretty loosey-goosey.

And on Halloween, everyone came in their costumes.

At a certain point in the day, they lined us all up for a "parade of costumes"---the whole school, kindergarten through 4th grade.  And they marched us down to the gym, where we were lead across the stage.

What makes me laugh is that we all did this.  The whole school.  Meaning, we were all parading across the stage, we were all in the show and no one was really settled in the audience.

Everyone's in the show and no one's in the audience.  I guess that's about right, for Halloween.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Rocket From The Crypt "Young Livers"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Crypt.  Get it?  Another Halloween-themed weekend post!  Also, livers are kinda scary, right?

Another amazing 90s band that just should have been more popular than they were.  The horns really worked for them and the energy was infectious.

The only time in my life I ever entertained the thought of getting a tattoo, was when I heard that if you got a Rocket From The Crypt tattoo on your body, you would get into any RFTC show for free, for life.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Concrete Blonde "Ghost Of A Texas Ladies Man"

Here's another Weekend Post:

He's a fun little lost hit of the 90s, that fills the bill for a Halloween themed Weekend Ghost, I mean, Post . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Imperial Drag "Boy Or A Girl"

I often think of this one around Halloween time, as inevitably, that gigantic woman that I just saw out of the corner of my eye, turns out to be a dude in a wig and sequins.

A catchy 90s nugget, courtesy of members of the at-the-time-just-broken-up Power Pop band, Jellyfish.


Hear the song on Youtube.

U2 "Blow Your House Down"

Well, it's the day after Halloween, so, in some quarters it's okay to start talking about Christmas.

I mean, for some of you, it's not appropriate to broach the subject until after you've had your Thanksgiving turkey, but c'mon, that's not realistic, if you're talking about preparing for Christmas as a shopping season.

In the world of the record industry, it has long been a tradition to shut things down when December hits. What with the flurry of the holiday, with holiday programming and other distractions, record labels recognized that December is a pretty terrible time to launch a new record project.

So if it wasn't out by November, it wasn't coming out until January.

But as we, as a culture, have started the Christmas season earlier and earlier, the label world has had to react.

Now, if the record isn't out by mid-October, then it's not coming out until next year. You just can't chance having a good record get lost in the holiday shuffle.

Sure, labels could then take a couple of months off/easy, and prepare for next year, but that's a pretty long furlough. So instead, they have really ramped up the no-brainer releases.

In the past, you could reliably count on a couple of popular artists releasing Christmas records. Because if I say (like last year) "Sting has a new Christmas record," you know everything you need to know. You know what it is going to sound like, and if you like Sting, or have a family member on the Christmas list who likes Sting, you'll probably buy it.

Labels also started pushing Best Of/Greatest Hits releases and Live albums to November.

Again, there's no ramping up or explaining necessary. "R.E.M. has a career-spanning Best Of coming out," has no ambiguity. If you like R.E.M., you'll probably want this.

And now, come the reissues. Albums celebrating their 10th or 15th or 20th Anniversary get the treatment, where the original album is remastered, and there is a generous package of songs from that era on a second disc.

You've probably never heard "Blow Your House Down" before, but if you've heard U2's "Achtung Baby" then you have a pretty strong sense of what this unreleased b-side is going to sound like.

That makes it an easy buy, if you're in some retail shop and you see the U2 display. You don't have to think about it, and you don't have to wonder if you'll like it, you don't have to deliberate.

You can just buy it, and the record label person behind the record can have a good holiday knowing they were doing their job all season long.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Hooters "All You Zombies"

Nothing like a good ol' zombie song, on Halloween weekend.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Hitmen "Bates Motel"

We were driving through an off-Island town last weekend, and my wife pointed out a very cool Halloween decoration on one of the local houses.

The house had a replica of the "Bates Motel" neon sign in their window.

Very cool!

And suddenly, this song popped in my head. I haven't thought about it in a million years. I certainly haven't heard it since the 80s.

Enjoy!


See the video on Youtube.

The Theme from "Gilligan's Island"

Sometimes Halloween sneaks up on you. Or you just don't get it together. Or you didn't think you were going to a party, but now you are.

So you have your Safety Costume.

Like a tolerable girlfriend that you keep going back to, or a low budget state school, you've got a costume in your back pocket that's easy to throw together at the last minute. And there are probably 1/2 dozen photos of you, wearing the same dang thing, spread across a decade (or two).

Should I be pleased or embarrassed that Gilligan is my Safety Costume, based largely on the fact that if I wear a red shirt and a white hat, I look strikingly similar to Bob Denver?

The answer is probably, embarrassed . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Tom Petty "Zombie Zoo"

Who's the most Halloween-y Rock Star?

I mean, what musician do you associate with Halloween?

If this were "Family Feud," I'm guessing the survey might say artists like:

Alice Cooper
Marilyn Manson
Bobby Boris Pickett
Michael Jackson
Insane Clown Posse

But there is at least one vote for Tom Petty. From me.

There is an odd number of Halloween references and themes sprinkled throughout Petty's career. How about lyrics like:

"All the vampires walking through the Valley/move west down Ventura Boulevard."

"I got cats and teeth and hair for sale/I'm a lover of the bayou/And there are zombies on your tail/I'm a lover of the bayou."

Petty's got songs like "Zombie Zoo" and "Scare Easy."

And who wasn't creeped-the-fuck out by that Alice In Wonderland video when they cut the cake?

So this Halloween, rethink it. Vincent Price. Elvira. And Tom Petty.



Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Fools "Psycho Chicken"

With Halloween coming, I'll use this weekend slot to post some Old School fun . . .


See the video on Youtube.

Jeff Beck & Joss Stone "I Put A Spell On You"

My college pal Ross put out a Facebook request for some contemporary Halloween-like suggestions to build a list.

This was my suggestion.

You can see and hear Ross' list at In Your Speakers.


See them perform it on Youtube.

And if I'm going to post this song, then I have to post this fully bat-shit insane and in-questionable-taste old performance by Screamin' Jay Hawkins.


See the video of questionable taste on Youtube.

Tracy Jordan "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah"

This song from "30 Rock" is kinda like getting marshmellow peeps for Trick Or Treat . . . it's a little stale and not quite holiday appropriate.

Nightmare Before Christmas "This Is Halloween"

The debate in our house this week . . . is this too scary for our 3 year old? At what age did you let your kids see this one?

Counting Crows "The Ghost In You"

If the Counting Crows show I wrote about this week had happened in 2009, instead of 1999, there'd be dozens of clips of it on YouTube. But I couldn't find a single clip from 1999. We didn't have video cameras in our phones, back then. In fact, if you were "mobile" at that time, you might've had a giant bag-phone.


Anyway, Adam Duritz donned the bunny ears on a later occasion, and here he sings a Halloween-appropriate cover tune.

New Kids On The Block "The Right Stuff"

Don't dish it out, if you can't take it, right?

After post about Adam Duritz in a bunny suit and Michael Stipe as Frank-N-Furter, it seems only fair to post a picture of myself.

Please enjoy is 1990-ish Halloween picture of me and my college roommates as New Kids On The Block.

That's me, in the middle back.  Billy, on the left, is supposed to be Donnie, "The Tough One."  Martin, front right, is Joey, "The Cute One."  Ken, the Norwegian, is supposed to be the brother who never really talked.

Not sure where we all got the vests.  None of us were the vest owning types. But you can see on our lapels, some stickers that came out of a NKOTB bubble gum pack. We're each wearing a picture of the New Kid we're supposed to represent, and our posture is a mimic of the picture.

Except for Kurt (in day-glo). Always ahead of his time, he didn't really want to be a New Kid, so he reimagined the group, as if Flavor Flav had replaced one of the boys. Yes, that's a digial alarm clock around his neck.

This was in our Railroad Street apartment, off-campus at UMass, where, no doubt, we had a party, got stupidly drunk, danced like idiots, and never had it better than when we were being silly, together.