“Haunted House” Teenage Bottlerocket
“Being here ain’t very nice,
keep thinking we’ll see Vincent Price
Hidden rooms and creepy halls,
blood starts dripping down the walls
Portraits hung with moving eyes
and what’s with all these fucking flies
I hear the werewolf bark,
eyes start glowing in the dark
I got to get out of this haunted house.”
One their 2015 album, Tales From Wyoming, pop-punkers Teenage Bottlerocket gave nods to the Vincent Price classic House On Haunted Hill, as well as a reference to the 1999 remake (“Almost twenty years ago, went someplace you shouldn’t go. In a house up on a hill, on a dare and for a thrill), to the Ghostbusters’ character Peter Venkman (played by Bill Murray), and subtle nods to Scooby Doo and The Amityville Horror.
“We Put The Fun in Funeral” Motionless In White
“Frankenstein is about to wreck the gate.
A bat is about to eat his tea.
The fires scratching down in the movie soon.
Has Dracula spiked the punch with blood?”
Motionless In White’s debut EP The Whorror was released back on July 3, 2007, and it brought spooky sounds to the middle of the summer. All of the songs were written by lead vocalist Chris Motionless and “We Put The Fun In Funeral” is the 2000s metalcore version of “The Monster Mash”.
“Broadcasting From Beyond the Grave: Death Inc.” Motionless In White
“Can you hear the bell toll, little scarecrow?
Radio, burnin’ like a star in a black hole
Did you get the memo?
Pretty typo Romeo
Cutting you up like a Van Gogh”
Motionless In White’s 2019 album Disguise kept with their passionate and aggressive lyrical content with a more notable nu-metal sound. “Broadcasting From Beyond the Grave: Death Inc.” throws in almost every name minus the kitchen sink as part of a ghoulish radio show and samples a clip of Claude Rains in the 1933 Universal classic The Invisible Man, “I’ll show you who I am and WHAT I am.”
“Monster Mash” Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett
“The zombies were having fun,
the party had just begun
The guests included Wolfman, Dracula, and his son
The scene was rockin’,
all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds”
I mean, this one should go without saying.
The “novelty song” was released in 1962 by Bobby “Boris” Pickett first on a single then on the album The Original Monster Mash. The song reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1962 and even hit #9 on the US Billboard Hot R&B Sides. Believe it or not, the song was banned from airplay by the BBC in the U.K. for being “too morbid” but it was later released and even charted in 1973.
The song has been covered numerous times, notably it was performed live by The Beach Boys, Vincent Price in 1977, a version performed by The Big O plays over the credits in Return of the Living Dead Part II, the Alvin & the Chipmunks as part of their 1994 Halloween special, and The Misfits as part of their Project 1950 cover album.
“Dead Stars Drive-In” Stellar Corpses
“Bela Lugosi felt no pain.
Dracula has poisoned the blood in his veins.
Vampira never got what she deserved.
Hollywood has turned its back on her.
It’s not about who you are
It’s who you know.”
The title track from their 2012 release, Stellar Corpses’ “Dead Star Drive-In” is an ode to the stars of Hollywood’s past that are either remembered fondly or, sadly, ignored in some cases. Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley are names that commonly come up but we can’t forget about our horror actors Bela Lugosi and Maila Nurmi, better known by her character name Vampira. Hunter Burgan of the Bay Area band AFI lends his voice as part of backing vocals on the song.
“She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man” Screaming Lord Sutch
“When it come to the scene
where the monster should die
My baby broke down and she started to cry
Said ‘this monster I love’
in a strange kinda whisper
‘He’s my kinda guy cuz I’m Dracula’s sister!’ ”
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was the first “shock rocker” in the 1950s. Following him in the 1960s in the U.K. was Screaming Lord Sutch, who was known for dressing as Jack the Ripper and starting shows by emerging from a coffin on stage that was surrounded by daggers and bones. “She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man” appears on their self-titled album Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages after it was released as a single in July 1964.
Another One For The Fire 