Fall may be a magical time, but when it comes to setting up Halloween music playlists, you may find the lack-o-options frustrating. Sure, “Thriller” helps even the most uncoordinated shake their booty, and of course “Monster Mash” is a classic, but these tired songs don’t always cut it when you’re trying to envoke the feeling of the holiday to liven up your shindig.
Rather than throw a spoopy cd on repeat, here are a couple of off beat albums to flesh out your playlist that no one will bat an eye at.
NIGHTMARE REVISITED
Of course we couldn’t kick off this list without some iteration of everyone’s favorite hybrid holiday movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. While every Halloween playlist is sure to have at least one instance of Danny Elfman warbling about his conflict of interests from the cult favorite The Nightmare Before Christmas, there are a surprising amount of people who still haven’t revisited the nightmare. Nightmare Revisited is exactly what it sounds like – a group of popular bands and artists collaborating to cover the entirety of the Tim Burton phenomenon. But this collection isn’t limited to hits like “This is Halloween” or “Sally’s Song.” The album also covers the instrumental tracks, which will give you over an hour of ambiance. What’s this?
NATIVE CONSTRUCT
The collaborative group of Berklee students blend the modern metal genre with a wide spectrum of compositional influences and come up with a uniquely textured sound that lends itself perfectly to any playlist. With Native Construct’s extended-range guitars, theatrical vocals, and full complement of symphonic instrumentation, their 2011 album Quiet World can be thrown into the Halloween music mix on random or go the entire distance as a stand alone.
THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN
Not feeling the more modern metal? Go for something more “traditional.” Older albums from The Dillinger Escape Plan offer just enough of the creepy vibe without the haunting idea that your guests would turn up their noses at the screaming vocals. The album Miss Machine in particular sounds as if it was pulled straight from the soundtrack of any popular horror flick.
MR. BUNGLE
Perhaps a random addition to mix into a Halloween-centric playlist, but party goers aren’t going to be picking apart your musical tastes. And if they are, they really shouldn’t be invited. Mr. Bungle’s album California adds a random and moderately terrifying ambiance to what is otherwise background noise for bad decisions. Eat all the candy!
THE DARKNESS
Halloween doesn’t have to be all dark and dismal, and adding glam rock band The Darkness to any playlist will prove to be quite the misnomer. Their album To Hell and Back offers lighthearted songs that all your partygoers know by heart with just enough 80s to inspire a fun atmosphere and sing-a-long moments.
Honorable mention goes out to Jason Segel’s hit, Dracula’s Lament, because obviously.
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So we here at IhoGeek love apps. All sorts of apps. Touchy flashy screen pressing apps.
I’ve been keeping tabs with some apps particularly for kids from Famloop, a relatively new children’s reading and game app company for Ipad and Apple products founded in 2011 from a team of original Google employees. In their relative short existence they’ve put out quite a number of fun and engaging interactive reading apps for kids including a series of beautifully illustrated and adequately fun adaptations of the classic Punky Dunk the Kitten series which my own seven year old cousin enjoys quite a bit and a second app called “Agent Magic” a talking detective mouse who revisits the Punky Dunk stories and adds extra interactive elements good for helping kids learn and practice small observation and motor skills. My cousin enjoys them and we’ve played them quite a few times when I’ve babysat. They also have a really fun take on the Wizard of Oz with the first of a series called “Oz Tales”, an app which features a blonde (like the book!) Dorothy that utilizes some great voice interactive elements.
Now most of these offerings are for older kids, in the 5-9 range. Famloop has now partnered with DK Publishing to produce interactive flap book aps for tots. The new read-along titles; adaptations of Sophie la Girafe® Colors and Peekaboo! Woof! Woof! Joining other Sophie aps and interactive Peekaboo! books.
These colorful, simple titles are great for wee people and Timelords ages 0-3 alike help develop vocabulary, coordination and identification. You follow Sophie as you learn all her friend’s favorite colors and be entertained by the new ways digitized animation can bring to a book.
I think the blending of mediums really work well and the use of digital e-readers for “flap” books actually increases what you can do with your kid as it offers more puzzles like the pieced apart lil dino above along with traditional “check underneath” interaction.
A quick little blurb for some quick and cute little books. If you know someone who has a kid check these out, let us know what you think of them!
My one complaint which has been brought to my attention; they unfortunately don’t seem to have Android support or apps; something I am keen to personally inquire about. OS exclusion isn’t fun! Like teaching kids developers should learn to play fair!
Have a great week!
Max Eber
Staff Writer/The Doctor
max@ihogeek.com
Twitter: @maxlikescomics
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If you are like anybody on planet earth, then you wish you knew another language. If you have a fancy phone, specifically an iPhone (or an iPad) then you can learn another language and it won’t feel like pulling teeth. In fact, it’s really fuckin’ fun.
Having looked up apps for learning another language in the past I have been fairly underwhelmed. Most of them look cheap and the ones that are simply decent cost eight to twenty dollars. That sucks. And then one day, the clouds parted and the mighty interwebs bestowed upon me an app called MindSnacks. With a variety of different languages to learn and developed by a team of people who truly look like they are having fun, I highly recommend MindSnacks for anyone.
Hit the jump and I’ll give you some more details!
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The DLC for Forza Motorsport 4 will be available on December 6th. The new downloadable content will feature 10 new cars to add to one’s collection and it will only set you back about 7 dollars( 560 Microsoft points). Please note that if you have purchased the Season Pass, this content will be “free”. Check out the sexy trailer by clicking here. Check out the list down below: (more…)
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