Joe Sansone – “Subway Song” (The Cure)

The combination of timid guitar noodling, a sneaky bass line, and a roaring harmonica on The Cure’s Subway Song sets an eerie scene of a woman in fear for her life.  Robert Smith tells the story of a girl alone on a Subway at night.  She senses someone is following her, but tries to ignore the feeling.  She can hear footsteps getting closer to her, but she continues to walk away.  Smith warns the woman to “turn around”, but it seems to be too late.  Subway Song ends with brief silence, followed by the high pitched, petrified scream of this woman.  While it may be hard for artists to scare their listeners through recorded audio, the scream alone may make you jump.

Ellie Molitor – “Halloween All Year” (The Orwells)

The third track from their impressive debut full-length Remember When, The Orwells’ “Halloween All Year” is a slow burner that bubbles with the kind of suburban mistrust that brings me straight back to the beginning of a new school year on the North Shore of Chicago. There’s nothing spookier.

Christine Varriale – “Came as A Glow” (Pile)

Nothing is scarier than loneliness, except for maybe severed body parts. Pile’s songs seem to have this intriguing theme, but “Came As a Glow” is the spookiest. It is so catchy that you want to forget its morose use of ripped out throats.

Sami Martasian – “Pinebox Derby” (Beat Happening)

This isn’t really scary, but it has all the fixin’s for a great Halloween song: blood, witches,coffins and broomsticks. It’s absolutely perfect to dance around the caldron to.

Lisa Battiston – “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” (The Cramps)

With the bluesy rock and roll guitar The Cramps are known for, Lux Interior’s sensual vocals croon from the get-go, “I was a teenage werewolf / braces on my fangs / I was a teenage werewolf / And no one even said thanks / And no one made me stop!”  A complete rock out ensues after Lux’s adolescent werewolf finds that it’s not that he can’t be made to stop – he can’t be stopped at all. Much respect to the deceased Lux Interior, too, as the anniversary of his birthday was October 21.

Sharon Weissburg – “M1A1” (Gorillaz)

The first time I heard this song when I was a small child, I felt as though I were leaning over some yawning abyss. M1A1 sounds like all the things that go bump in the night and more, helped greatly by the looping sample from Day of the Dead of creepy keyboards and a man desperately yowling, “HELLO? Is anyone there? Helloooo…” I didn’t know that the sample had come from a horror classic — I only knew that it got under my skin, and for a while, I couldn’t listen to it, skipping past it every time I listened to the album (which remains one of my top five of all time). Maybe that’s what makes it such a great song, though, maybe my favorite now, building and then crashing into a head-bangingly awesome punk jam with grinding guitars and Damon Albarn’s demonically perfect vocals about halfway through.

Mark Zurlo – “This Could Be Love” (Alkaline Trio)

This song outlines a tidy four step processes for killing a lover and destroying the evidence. It’s so catchy you might even forget how disturbing the whole thing is

Helen Chen – “Seer” (Witch)

Rock and roll has been referred to as the devil’s music. While that standard may be tricky to apply to modern day rockstars, Vermont based stoner rock band Witch reminds us of it’s potential Satanic influence.

Bianca Rullo – “Count in Fives” (The Horrors)

No other band personifies Halloween quite like Strange House-era Horrors. The album, with the subtitle “Psychotic Sounds For Freaks and Weirdos,” seamlessly intertwines funereal organ sounds, blood-curdling shrieks and sadistic lyrics with ’60s inspired garage rock to create a goth-punk masterpiece suitable for any Halloween party.

Nick Canton – “The March of The Gay Parade” (of Montreal)

The album this appears on, The Gay Parade, was my first exposure to of Montreal.  The songs before and after are quaint vignettes of life in some idyllic and offbeat hamlet, like the soundtrack to a Richard Scarry book.  I made the assumption in the first few tracks that of Montreal was a safe, happy, simple band.  Then The March of The Gay Parade came on.  It sounds as though you’ve stumbled into an insane asylum, a mad-hatter-masquerade where you’re the only one who doesn’t know what’s happening.  Eerie and erratic, the minor-key melody warbles through some high-pitched horn (or someone’s mouth) while bystanders voice approval (“oh, how nice!”) at each repetition, building to cacophony.  Finally lyrics come in about how everyone looks nice, and they make friends with animals, and they burn the flags of other countries.  Then the song ends with no more context given and you are left to suspect that, with a title track like that, the rest of this pleasant little romp is hiding something sinister.

Jeeyoon Kim – “Bodysnatchers” (Radiohead)

No ghosts, witches, or serial killers but “Bodysnatchers” will get your blood pumping – come on, that guitar riff? This track follows the mounting paranoia of a narrator who is being hunted. As it builds we aren’t sure if the chase is physical or inside his own head, we just know ‘it’ is coming.

Sam Terris – “Buenos Tardes Amigos” (Ween)