The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Original Score - "Main Title"


So nothing going on today at the Cemetery but the last of putting everything away for another year. Definitely a low energy day, and I wasn't even going to post anything today. Until I caught wind of this!

After TWELVE YEARS of working on this deal, Waxwork Records is FINALLY announcing the release of what horror score and soundtrack collectors (like myself) consider one of the true holy grails, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre original 1974 film score by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell!

I am beyond excited for this! And if the rest of the score is anything like this first track, it will be a mandatory purchase for horror and Halloween fans alike! Press play and 30 seconds in, you will know exactly what this is!

Enjoy!

  

The Wreck Of Highbury Cemetery


I had been riding a wave of good luck and fortune throughout this Halloween season... and unfortunately that luck just ran out.

Our neighborhood trick-or-treat was Sunday night, but I wanted to keep the display up and running through Halloween night to keep the spooky orange-and-black vibes going. My plan was to run the full show on Halloween night, just as a worthy sendoff to another incredible season (even if nobody else would see it, I could bask in the glow of my hard work one more time this year). I decided to go to work on Halloween, blasphemous I know. And that's when I got the call...

The winds had REALLY picked up and had started to devastate the display. I cut out at lunch and headed home to assess the damage. By the time I got home, it was too late. Tombstones were blown from their mounts, my 12 ft. skeleton had almost completely blown over due to a break in the metal frame base, and worst of all, my entire arch entryway had blown over, snapping the arched sign in half and heavily damaging one of the pillars. Gah, my heart sunk.






With the help of Mrs. Highbury, we quickly pulled in the damaged pieces and then pulled in anything else that could have been the next victim of the whipping winds. Suffice to say that Halloween did not end the way I had hoped, but in a rare glimmer of optimism, I took stock of everything and quickly realized that all of the pieces could be repaired and will be used again in next year's display. I'll definitely have my work cut out, but it will fuel the determination for 2025.

So Halloween ends on a sour note, but overall it was another jam-packed amazing season. I'll keep riding this high for another couple of weeks, and I still have quite a bit to share. So let's keep this thing going for a bit. Check back tomorrow for more post-Halloween Halloween fun.

Only 364 more days to go. Are you ready?

  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



Happy Halloween to all from Highbury Cemetery! May the Candy Corn gods look down upon you in favor on this day and grant you the opportunities to celebrate the high holiday in the manner you see fit. 

Another year's worth of planning, building, and most importantly celebrating, the season comes down to this. So go forth and revel in All Hallows Eve. Our Holiday. Carry on the traditions that make the season so great, for we are the anointed that keep the spirits alive, nurture them, and pass them on to future generations. We are Halloween.

  

Throbbing Gristle - "Hamburger Lady"


I couldn't go the entire month of October without posting one of my all-time favorite industrial audio tracks. Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" is so dark, raw and visceral, and still just grinds on you even 47 years after its initial release.

Add to it the horrifying nature of the lyrics (less "lyrics" but more a reading of a grotesque account of a fictional burn victim - hence the "hamburger"...) and the reverberation and repetition in which they are recited just adds to the unsettling nature of this track.

But it's so good. Like an accident that you can't look away from, you'll just keep listening to the grating, repetitive dirge of this song. A perfect creepy element to round out another Halloween season.

Enjoy.

  

The 2024 Highbury Cemetery T-Shirt


The limited run of Highbury Cemetery t-shirts for 2024 are done! Every year, I take the annual haunt logo and create a t-shirt graphic. I then hand print a very limited run of shirts that I give out as a thank you to everyone who helps set up, run, and then tear down the Highbury Cemetery yard haunt.

For this year, I ended up going in a completely different direction with the art in that instead of traditional silkscreening with ink, I decided I wanted to try printing with BLEACH! And the results are amazing!!

I followed the detailed instructions from Pigskins and Pigtails (which made it super easy! Thanks, Jennifer!), and got a unique series of one-of-kind shirts. Each had a different level of logo bleaching brightness followed by a random spray or spatter of extra bleach across the front and back. I'm REALLY happy with the way these turned out and REALLY excited to hand these out! I think these are some of the best shirts to come out of the Cemetery the past 21 years...





But the best part of all? It looks like I'll have an extra shirt or two left over. Soooo...

Who wants to have a contest for a chance to win one? An extra little Halloween treat for those that have been hanging out at the blog all October long?

Next week (after all of the madness), I'll post up a little something. Nothing too crazy. Win it and the shirt is yours! Cool? Let's do this!

  

Thom Yorke - Suspirium


This is a waltz thinking about our bodies
What they mean for our salvation
With only the clothes that we stand up in
Just the ground on which we stand
Is the darkness ours to take?
Bathed in lightness, bathed in heat
All is well, as long as we keep spinning
Here and now, dancing behind a wall
When the old songs and laughter we do
Are forgiven always and never been true
When I arrive, will you come and find me?
Or in a crowd, be one of them?
Wore the wrong sign back beside her
Know tomorrow's at peace

It's the day after, and I am completely and utterly wrecked. Today is a day to recover and just veg on the couch, so just a quick post today.

I absolutely love this song by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. It was featured in the 2018 Suspiria remake (which by remake standards was quite exceptional), and it perfectly envelops the malaise of day-after melancholy. A beautifully haunting and simple song from a man and his piano...

Enjoy.