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Oct 30, 2013 Beach Day By Mark Redfern

We sent out the same set of Halloween-related questions to a bunch of different musicians. All Halloween week we are posting their responses. Here are some spooky answers from Kirin J Callinan, Jake Bellows, Beach Day, Hands, The Casket Girls, and Willy Mason.

Kirin J Callinan

What was the best Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the best Halloween you ever had?

We didn’t celebrate Halloween in Oz [Australia] when I was growing up. At most, just a few coordinated home wreckings—toilet paper attacks, letter box demolition, twisted pornographic printouts slipped under doors. Funny stuff when you’re 12.

What was the worst Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the worst Halloween you ever had?

Slightly more recently, as an adult, I wore a suit of several dozen inflated multi-colored condoms held together by a couple of rolls of sticky and went out dancing.

What do you plan to dress up as for Halloween this year?

I haven’t really. I mean, planning costumes isn’t really my style. But maybe I can dress up Nicholas Cage’s legendary super-criminal Castor Troy [from Face/Off], but really be John Travolta’s character Sean Archer, masked behind Castor’s face. The good guy stuck in the bad guy’s skin. I can relate.

What’s your favorite spooky song?

It’s hard to find legitimately spooky music. Even the music of bands/blokes like Gorgoroth or Charles Manson—it’s real twisted, but kind of also light or just silly. That said, all music pre-1975 is kind of spooky to me I guess. Also, “Pink Frost” by The Chills always sends a, uh, chill down my spine—especially when considering Martin Phillipps’ subsequent career trajectory against a chilly Dunedin backdrop. I also like the Stan Ridgway track “Twisted” a lot. It’s not so spooky but it is so kooky.

www.kirinjcallinan.bandcamp.com

Jake Bellows

What was the best Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the best Halloween you ever had?

1979 bowling champion from Mineola, Iowa.

What was the worst Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the worst Halloween you ever had?

Dracula was, hands down, my worst Halloween effort.

What do you plan to dress up as for Halloween this year?

Wet nurse.

What have you always wanted to dress up as for Halloween but never had the guts and/or resources to pull off?

The space shuttle Challenger.

What’s your favorite scary movie?

I really like Nightmare On Elm Street.

What’s your favorite spooky song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXwYtxXVwNs [Count von Count, “Dancing Children,” from Sesame Street, episode #1038.]

www.jakebellows.com

Beach Day

Skyler Black and Kimmy Drake

What was the best Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the best Halloween you ever had?

Skyler Black: I was Jack the Ripper with a huge butcher knife.

Kimmy Drake: I was Wednesday from The Addams Family. The best Halloween is always the Halloween where you get the most candy! Whoever gets the most candy wins!

What was the worst Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the worst Halloween you ever had?

Skyler: I was an Olive Garden chef because my mom worked there. Horrible costume!

Kimmy: I was an angel! It was so cheesy! I had wings. It was magic.

What do you plan to dress up as for Halloween this year?

Skyler: A Knight of the Round Table.

Kimmy: I’m going to be Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

What have you always wanted to dress up as for Halloween but never had the guts and/or resources to pull off?

Skyler: A cake.

What’s your favorite scary movie?

Kimmy: The Ring! It’s so stupid but I love it! Oh, and Ringu, the Japanese version. Also, the Japanese movie Audition is so crazy. I love that one.

Skyler: I saw The House of the Devil last year. It’s a new movie but is totally a spot-on ‘70s-horror-movie-looking production. Amazing and so creepy.

What’s your favorite spooky song?

Skyler: “Dracula’s Daughter” by Screaming Lord Sutch!

Kimmy: “I Put a Spell On You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is super creepy.

www.beachdayband.tumblr.com

Hands

Alex Staniloff

What was the best Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the best Halloween you ever had?

This one time in New York, despite the cold, I dressed up as Tom Cruise’s character in Risky Business: button-down, Ray-Bans and tighty-whities—nothing else. It was great. Women everywhere commented on my bulge and I had my friend, Jack Daniels, to keep me warm.

What was the worst Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the worst Halloween you ever had?

This one time in New York, despite the cold, I dressed up as Tom Cruise’s character in Risky Business: button-down, Ray-Bans and tighty-whities—nothing else. It was awful. I had to put a sock down there to fill it out. I was so embarrassed. I ended up going home with a girl, who later turned out to have her own bulge—and it wasn’t a sock! I went home and ate candy corn until I puked. And by candy corn, I mean whiskey.

What do you plan to dress up as for Halloween this year?

I’m going to dress up as cool Santa Claus and freak out my friends, who will undoubtedly be on drugs. What is cool Santa? Well, it’s your typical Santa suit with a pair of cool shades over my eyes. But I’ll wear blood red contacts underneath so when my drug-induced friends come up to me, I’ll earn their trust as Cool Santa, and then tear off my shades revealing my blood red eyes and proclaim “Tony, you’ve been very naughty!” And hopefully pants shall be pooped.

What’s your favorite scary movie?

Please don’t kill me, Matthew Lillard and/or Skeet Ulrich!

www.handssounds.com

The Casket Girls

Phaedra Greene

What was the best Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the best Halloween you ever had?

We were raised by our aunt and she was very religious and didn’t condone Halloween. But one year, she and our uncle were out of town and a friend of theirs watched us and let us dress up and trick-or-treat. They just bought us little princess costumes, so we weren’t scary or anything, but once we hit the streets we just went wild. We couldn’t believe that you could just go house to house and collect candy from all of these strangers. We feel bad for the poor lady that took us out because we were like wild monsters, but it was one of the best nights of our lives.

What was the worst Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the worst Halloween you ever had?

We had our first experience with alcohol when we were in high school on a Halloween night. We dressed up and went to a friend’s party. Elsa just had a sip of beer and wasn’t into it at the time (now she can drink anyone under the table), but I think I had about 10 shots of some mystery liquor and ended up comatose and vomiting on myself in a Wonder Woman costume while she tried to keep it all together and get me home. She had just gotten her license—and I barfed in our aunt’s car. No one was happy about it. Except for me—I didn’t remember anything.

What do you plan to dress up as for Halloween this year?

Umm. We plan on going as ourselves.

What’s your favorite scary movie?

The Shining.

What’s your favorite spooky song?

Exuma: “Dambala.”

www.casketgirls.org

Willy Mason

What was the best Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the best Halloween you ever had?

I love to dress up, especially when I’m onstage. Being an unknown singer has its advantages. One Halloween I did a gig dressed as an old man and nobody seemed to know I was faking it. It was nice because I didn’t feel as obligated to throw happy upbeat songs into the set. Another time I played back home after losing my previous record deal and had returned rather ungracefully. I stuffed my shirt to give myself a big old gut and came in with Cheetos crumbs all over my gut shelf and a couple creaky high kicks and some stories about my good old glory days. Luckily I think most saw through that one although I didn’t dare to look too carefully.

What was the worst Halloween costume you ever dressed up in and/or what was the worst Halloween you ever had?

I remember the first time I discovered latex glue. My cousin and I went nuts gluing werewolf fur all over ourselves. Had an awesome night, but when the time came to clean up it was pain. I don’t think either of our eyebrows have grown back fully 15 years later.

What do you plan to dress up as for Halloween this year?

That’s a good question that I’m glad you asked because I forgot it was coming. I like to dress as an ideal version of myself. At the moment, I think that would have to mean a funky disco dancer because that’s where I feel my soul currently resides. But I really don’t know if I can pull that off.

What have you always wanted to dress up as for Halloween but never had the guts and/or resources to pull off?

Smokey the Bear.

What’s your favorite scary movie?

Cujo.

What’s your favorite spooky song?

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” forever.

www.willymasonmusic.com