To get ready for the All Hallow’s weekend here’s a playlist of what we think are genuinely creepy songs. With only a few exceptions, they’re mostly low-key acoustic songs, the kind you might hear around a campfire, somewhere far out in the woods. Only a couple deal with “monsters” per say (one mummy and one vampire, respectively), the rest are centered around the real-life kind of monsters – bloodthirsty sociopaths on hellish road-trips, spurned-lovers who become violently unhinged, and nightmarish butchers who come for your children in the night. A lot of the tunes are pretty, but if you listen close, these songs will keep you up at night…
mp3: Elliott Smith – Son of Sam
mp3: Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer
mp3: The Decemberists – The Rake’s Song
mp3: Mason Jennings – Jackson Square
mp3: Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
mp3: Joshua James – Farmer From The West
mp3: Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
mp3: A.A. Bondy – Oh The Vampyre
mp3: Johnny Cash – Delia’s Gone
mp3: Kings of Leon – Joe’s Head
mp3: Okkervil River – For Real
mp3: The Decemberists – Shankill Butchers
mp3: Mason Jennings – Isabella Part II
mp3: Sun Kil Moon – Glenn Tipton
Also, on a less creepy note, here’s a Halloween-themed video for Jeremy Messersmith’s quite beautiful “A Girl, A Boy, and a Graveyard”. Happy Halloween!