Staff Pixx 10/29
Looking for new tunes? The Music Staff submits their favorite songs of each week for the Staff Pixx radio show. If you can’t tune in Tuesdays at 6pm, check in to the Milk Crate home page for a full playlist, along with notes from each of our writers!
Mateo Rispoli
The Driller by Wolf Eyes
Screeching feedback, unrelenting warbling bass, and demonic vocal wretches, “The Driller” embodies harsh noise legends Wolf Eyes. Immediately followed by “Noise Not Music,” Wolf Eyes doesn’t care what they sound like to you, however their most likely inspiration seems the burning pits of hell, laden with smoldering rock and the souls of orphans starved in the streets of that ungodly monument to degeneracy, Cleveland, Ohio. Blood dripping from his lip, his eyes clouded with the cataracts of a 70 year old man, the orphan limps near on a maggot-infested foot mangled by a mongrel of some abhorrent origin. He removes his newsboy’s cap and asks “wood ya ‘ave a spare spot of porridge fuh uh strugglin’ young lad?” He’s spotted with patches of eczema. Wolf Eyes tightens a notch on the ostrich leather belt holding up their tattered wool trousers, puffs a cigarette of K2, steadies their pupils behind decades-worn shades, and says “piss off lad.” What a sordid trick or treat.
Isaiah Anthony
Goosebumps Theme by Retrospectre
Take a spooky trip back in time to the late 1990s with the theme song from the hit show, Goosebumps, based on the book series by R.L. Stine. The iconic opening riff will transport you back into one of the terrifying tales of Goosebumps, such as that episode where the boy gets a special typewriter that seemingly manifests whatever creature or item he types on its pages, only to discover later on, after much conflict, that the typewriter was not special at all and it was, in fact, his mind that was creating the monsters the whole time. A truly timeless holiday classic.
Simone Tranfaglia
Yes I’m a Witch by Yoko Ono, Palumbo of the Brothers, John Palumbo
Yoko Ono remix album, Yes, I’m a Witch released by Apple in 2007 introduces us to many of her back catalogue songs. The album titled song, “Yes, I’m a Witch” shows us her uncompromising alternative-rock side intertwined with an electronic synths. Yoko Ono proves to us she just “doesn’t care” with laissez faire lyrics, “Yes, I'm a witch/I don't care what you say/My voice is real/ my voice is truth.” The perfect song for channeling your inner self-righteous witch.
Kenny Cox
Sisters of the Moon by Fleetwood Mac
If there’s anybody in music who would be crowned the supreme witch of the world’s coven, it has to be Stevie Nicks. With her performances in black robes and appearances on American Horror Story, Nicks has earned a reputation as coven mother to countless fans throughout her career. No song better exemplifies Nicks’ enchanting songwriting and vocal talents than “Sisters of the Moon.” A deep album track from the band’s 1979 record Tusk, “Sisters of the Moon” is a beguiling, hard-rocking song perfect for casting hexes and levitating in the forest under the moonlight this Halloween. As Nicks sings about black widow spiders crawling around and dark moons rising in the distance, the song builds to a conclusion that takes off like a broomstick into the dead of night.
Lily Hartenstein
Deep Green by Marika Hackman
This song perfectly encapsulates the type of horror I find most terrifying: an insidious, under-your-skin type of unease that disguises itself in beauty. It sounds like a walk through a forest of witches, like the siren songs sailors dove into the waters to their dooms for. Marika Hackman nails the essence of the sorceress on this euphonious, entrancing track.
Kate Mettetal
My Crystal Spider by Sweetwater
I stumbled upon Sweetwater’s self-titled debut album in the depths of my Uncle Tony’s record collection. The record was tossed into an obviously forgotten “misc.” box, caked with so much dust that the cardboard looked fossilized. The stray record was coverless, only bearing the words “SWEETWATER REPRISE RECORDS, 1968”, but I decided to give them a listen anyways. Starting with Side B (because why not?), I braced for something potentially horrible. However, I was thrown down the rabbit hole filled with looming keyboard, Russian cello, crashing symbols, weird sound effects, and singing that was strangely reminiscent of “Arabian Nights”. It was insane and the four-minute track consists solely of the lyrics “have you seen my crystal / he has eyes of mercury”. Sweetwater, aside from being discovered in a crawlspace, sends chills down my spine because of its extremely psychedelic and disorienting mood. It sounds like it could be a song on an Alice in Wonderland soundtrack.
J. Faith Malicdem
Monster by dodie
dodie’s “Monster” peeks into the downfall of a relationship, where a significant other who was once a symbol of love and all things good in her eyes begins to morph into a slimy, scaly, emotionally unavailable and uncommunicative nightmare. The line between passion and madness is dissipated amongst metronomic minor-key hits and the gradual progression of hatred built up embedded in the song’s lyrics. Because the couple no longer knows how to go about working through the kinks of their relationship, dodie bites, quite literally, “I've said my speech through sharpened teeth / You break the rules and spikes grow from your skin / Please let the devil in.” So as you listen, beware of how dodie exquisitely conveys the ease at which passion twists—a fear romantics everywhere swallow.
Annie Wojnarowski
Monster by Lady Gaga
A classic selection from the L. Gaga catalogue, the pop icon explains how scary it can be to feel sexually intimate with another. Juxtaposed with a techno beat, Gaga proclaims how “this boy is a monster” who “ate my heart”. A new Halloween classic, Monster demonstrates the scary elements of expressing something as romanticized as sex. A master of dance pop, Miss Gaga’s Monster will possess you on the dance floor, just as she intended.
James Ammirato
The Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen
Post-punk always screams spooky season to me, and what better way to celebrate than by hearing Ian McCulloch croon over a gothic beat. Perhaps made popular this millenium by the film Donnie Darko, “The Killing Moon” is a great example of mid-80’s goth, a testament to hairspray and black nail polish. You can almost smell the fog machine in the chorus, soundtracking an excursion out under a full moon in the fall.
Erin Christie
Gravedigger Rock by The Polecats
Chiming in with a spine-chilling howl, The Polecats crafted the perfect spooky tune to commemorate the season with “Gravedigger Rock.” Complete with “Monster Mash”-esque keys, this track effortlessly combines classic new wave tropes with their signature rockabilly sway, topped off with Tim “Polecat” Worman’s versatile vocals. Despite lyrics discussing a gravedigger’s horrifying encounter with the dead, you can’t help but want to dance along.
Owen Murray
It’s Halloween by The Shaggs
They might not know how to play their instruments, but they definitely know what time of year it is!