Apocalypse Mixtape Part IV: The Final Chapter

In Apocalypse Mixtape we investigate music with horror movie-type themes.

Skip James

Devil Got My Woman

Ladies and Gentlemen, the creepiest song ever. Nehemiah "Skip" James was one of many Delta bluesmen who lived hard lives in near poverty only to be rediscovered in the blues revival of the 60s and trotted out as old men to play songs they had written thirty years before. He influenced musicians as diverse in style and time as Robert Johnson and Beck and wrote a number of blues standards like "Jesus is a Mighty Good Leader", "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (aspiring filmmakers- that right there is a title in search of a horror movie) and probably his best known song, "Devil Got My Woman". His voice sounds like it's wafting straight out of the Hellmouth and his guitar playing sounds like he might have taken lessons from Old Scratch himself. Modern day moviegoers might know the song from Ghost World, where crazy porn star offspring Thora Birch nurtures an Steve Buscemi-induced obsession with the song.

Blind Melon

Skinned

Poor Blind Melon. Of all the 'coulda been' stories of the 90's, few are as tragic as Blind Melon's. They scored an early hit with "No Rain" and with that video's Bee Girl inadvertently gave 90's music a symbol as potent as the dollar-baited baby from the cover of Nevermind. The band got lumped in with patchouli-stinking bands like the Spin Doctors and Widespread Panic as part of the neo-hippie movement, an association they tried to shake with the harder edge and darker tone of their follow-up album Soup. Unfortunately, their new direction was cut short by the overdose of lead singer Shannon Hoon in their tour bus outside Tipitina's in New Orleans. One of the tracks from Soup is "Skinned", an upbeat, country-ish song about Ed Gein and his unique furniture and clothes-making hobby. Watch out for the kazoo solo intro.

Eagles of Death Metal

Midnight Creeper

The Eagles of Death Metal started as a side project of Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme with mustache aficionado Jesse "The Devil" Hughes. Hughes shows how he earned his nickname with "Midnight Creeper" off EDM's debut album Peace, Love, Death Metal. The song is a catchy number about the joys of creepin' in windows and killin' families in their sleep with a video that probably doesn't get much play on TRL. "Well my steel is sharp and silent / The devil guides my hand / Well I just love to slit them throats / And creep all around this land" Hmm... that reminds me. I've got places to be.