Vintage Obscura Halloween Mix [2025] - Side A: The Midnight Monsters Had A Ball

Just a quick post today, as I'm hard at work in the Cemetery garage...

Vintage Obscura has released their first of five weekly October Halloween mixes for 2025, featuring a great collection of 50's and 60's Rockabilly, Novelty, Country, R&B, Religious, and Horror Rock tracks.

A perfect playlist to pipe through the garage while working on your Halloween props and projects. Just like me! Enjoy, and we'll see everyone tomorrow!

(And if you dig this playlist, head over to Spotify and check out the comprehensive playlist of ALL the Vintage Obscura Halloween Mix tracks!)

  

Halloween 'Zines: Haunt

I'm adding a new feature to my October blogging this year: Halloween 'zine reviews!! Growing up as a punk rock kid, I collected many a fanzine through the years. Small, DIY handmade photocopied, low-budget mini magazines that covered all aspects of the music genre, created and produced by the very participants within that scene. There's just something about holding a small magazine that was created and assembled by hand that always felt so tactile and genuine to me. And when I later became a home haunter, I discovered the same medium and immediately began collecting them.

First up is GroovyDoom's Haunt 'zine series. I ended up picking up the entire 10-issue series from the Etsy store and I'm so glad I did. Haunt absolutely nails the Halloween nostalgia in each issue, with pages crammed full of black-and-white Halloween ads, photos and article clippings from the 70's and 80's (my wheelhouse!).

As I flipped through each issue, I was transported back to those magical October days of my youth when I would race home from school and grab the Friday magazine insert from the newspaper, quickly scanning newsprint page after newsprint page of local haunted house ads (which in Northeast Ohio there were tons!) until my fingers were black from the ink. And then at dinner, I would BEG my parents to take me and my friends to each of them.

And while each issue of Haunt is a quick read, there is still enough old Halloween fun to keep me greedily grabbing for the next issue.

The entire Haunt 'zine series is a must-have, with super-cool illustrated covers and loads of old Halloween and haunted house ads. Each issue is a total blast to flip through and is a welcome slice of Halloweens past. And the photocopied black-and-white pages take me back to being a punk rock kid again.

Issue 11 is dropping now and all issues are available at the GroovyDoom Etsy store. Get it now!

  

"Spook Stuff For Hallowe'en" Record

It's the first Friday of October, and that can mean only one thing...

The return of Freebie Fridays!

Every Friday in October, I dig up one of the vintage novelty Halloween soundtrack cassettes, CDs, or vinyl records from my ever-growing collection and share it with all of my fellow classic "spooky sounds" junkies.

I've been doing this for quite a few years now, and I still absolutely love doing it. It's a great way to share the love during the Halloween season, and a great way to (re)discover some really neat-and-or-hilarious old novelty soundtracks from Halloweens long past.

So let's get down to business!!

Up first, we have Spook Stuff For Hallowe'en dating all the way back from 1960! This is an early classic and a no-brainer addition to your collection based on the amazing cover art alone!

(During the same year, this was re-released with a new title, Howlin' Hallowe'en: The Sounds Of Spook Stuff with equally amazing cover art. It's not in my collection yet and although it's the same audio with a different cover, it still ranks high on the want list.)

A Haunting 40 Minutes Of Scary, Spooky Stories-In-Sound - Also Suitable For Dramatic Sound Effects And Party Fun The Year 'Round

If you have grabbed any of the other offerings here in Octobers past, you will immediately recognize many of the sounds on side one, as they have been used countless times over in later releases. Howling wolves and wind, crying cats, cracking thunder, cackling witches and goblins, bubbling cauldrons... but it's just SO GOOD!! Don't forget this was put out in 1960! Groundbreaking sound effects for the time that set the tone for the "spooky sounds" genre to come (including four years before Disney's iconic Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House!) that still hits the Halloween nostalgia vibe.

Side two continues the collection of sound effects, this time loosely segmented into themes: Haunted Mine, Cemetery At Midnight, Halloween At The Haunted Castle, etc. The descriptions on the back of the record sleeve are more inspiring than the sound effects themselves, but the whole side is still a really fun listen. Especially the super kooky Halloween At The Haunted Castle vocal effects tracks! From there, the last three tracks devolve into hilarious vocal effect weirdness, straying from traditional "spooky sounds" and experimenting with then-modern oscillation, echo and reverb.

All in all, a really great piece of Halloween "spooky sounds" history and a great piece to add to your collection.

DOWNLOAD "SPOOK STUFF FOR HALLOWE'EN" HERE.

  

Defund The HOA!!

NEWS FLASH! My local neighborhood is in a frenzy! A neighbor has been asked by the Home Owners Association to take down her Halloween decorations because it doesn't comply with the new rule that went into effect on June 1st.

The new rule prohibits any holiday decorations to be placed in your yard prior to TEN DAYS before the holiday. The exception, of course, are the "Winter" holidays where you can place them starting November 15th.

WHAT!?!?

Her notification further requests that she takes them down ONLY TO PUT THEM BACK UP ON THE 14TH OF OCTOBER in compliance with the new rule. This is absolutely (please fill in your favorite expletive here) crazy!!

I don't even set anything up in my yard until two weeks before Halloween, but I can in no way agree to this or even see how this is even legal. The HOA has egregiously overstepped its authority in declaring something like this and has kicked the proverbial "hornet's nest" with this.

Here is the page from the new HOA "rulebook" (a book with a return form that I have not yet signed and returned to them, and at this point probably won't).

The neighborhood Facebook group page is starting to see pushback and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It's far from over, but I'll keep updating the blog as things progress...

  

Midnight Syndicate - "Sleep (Roxyblue Remix)"

I want to give a huge shoutout of congratulations to my good haunt friend Roxyblue! Her remix of the track Sleep has been included on the newest Midnight Syndicate release, Darkened Corners.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this track. Much darker, minimal and melancholic than the usual Midnight Syndicate fare, Sleep is a short, haunting whisp of classical Gothic unease with just the right amount of subtle spookiness. Easily the best track on the new release and one that should go into everyone's Halloween playlist.

Congrats, Bonnie! And enjoy!

  

Highbury Cemetery Logo, 2025

Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...

IT'S OFFICIALLY THE HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to kick off the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is my 15th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??

We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??

So let's get this thing started, shall we!?

Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my annual yard haunt logo. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt. 

For the past 21 years, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used across social media and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night. A well deserved treat for all of the hard work that goes into this crazy thing every year.

So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2025:

YEAR TWENTY-TWO. So many good memories and still so much fun, why stop now?!

Only 30 days until the big night, so let's get this pumpkin party started. Let's do this!!