I thought it only appropriate to celebrate Halloween with a special playlist:

Match ANY of the following conditions

NAME contains Halloween
NAME contains Trick
NAME contains Treat
NAME contains Haunt
NAME contains Black

iTunes only came back with a measly 180 tunes, at least ¼ of which were “Black Sweat” or “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”. I will readily admit to skipping each of these tracks at least once in the course of this shuffle. For those who have not joined in the Five, here’s how it works: … I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five with some words (and on occasion the song itself) for each track.

Then it’s your turn! You can play along with the themed playlist or just share the first five of your shuffle, either way the fun is in playing musical voyeur for the day.

Here are this week’s tracks:

1. AFI – Bleed Black (from Sing the Sorrow)

This is certainly a fitting start to the Halloween edition of the Friday Five. Creepiness abounds in the atmospheric info and acoustic breakdown mid-way through the tune. Off to a good start!

2. Billy Bragg & Wilco – Black Wind Blowing (from Mermaid Avenue Volume 2)

While I own both volumes of the Mermaid Avenue series they do not see the light of day very often. I’ll have to make a mental note to bring them out of hiding more often.

3. Dave Matthews Band – Halloween (mp3) (from Before These Crowded Streets)

This song is definitely in my Top 10 DMB tracks. Live, there are not many other tunes that can touch the focused energy that goes into the performance. While it’s true that Dave usually mangles the lyrics and just sings nonsense save for specific lines (think of it as Dave’s “Yellow Ledbetter”) there is something to hearing him spew the venomous lyrics (“Tell us are you satisfied with f**king?”, “Love is Hell, My Love is Hell“) written for the woman who turned down his proposal of marriage three times.

I’ve only heard the song live once on 12.21.2002 and it came as a the first encore after a blazing set featuring a 15 minute jam with James Brown on “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine”. Dave walked out wearing a Santa hat and the crowd expected “The Christmas Song” (it was even on the printed set list), he must have been possessed by the devil that night as he tossed the hat across the stage and the band kicked into a sick version of the track. And since it’s Halloween and you all deserve a treat, here is a recording of that very version.

4. Run-D.M.C. – It’s Tricky (from Can’t Hardly Wait)

Back in the day (or is it’s tha day) this was my jam! One of the first rhymes that I learned from start to finish and could flow unaccompanied, this is still one of my favorite hip hop jams.

5. AC/DC – Back in Black (from Back in Black)

Man, this shuffle kicked all sorts of ass. Short of “Hell’s Bells” or Type O Negative’s “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” I can’t think of a better track to close this Halloween Friday Five.

So what’s keeping the lil ghosts and ghouls busy in your neck of the woods?

Happy Halloween!