I could let Halloween season pass without revisiting the Gothic Archies. The chords are fairly simple (so long as you’ve got the hang of playing Bb). The biggest challenge is keeping a straight face and a deadpan voice while singing lines like, “Real people question how someone took a lobster’s face and put it on a cow.”
Stephin Merrit’s second song for Volvo (I’m In A Lonely Way) is up on YouTube. No ukulele on this one. But plenty of ukulele videos right here. Read the rest of this entry »
If you find that the pink Mahalos just aren’t camp enough, you might treat yourself to a Tiki King designed Cowboy Fluke. Those with more refined tastes might prefer a Curly Mango Fluke (complete with pickup).
Oh Kala, how you tempt me with your good looks and affordable price tag.
This track is from the later, and some would say crappier, non-Danzig version of The Misfits. But I quite like this song and, with a capo at the first fret, the chords are similar to those used in Halloween.
This is my go to riff whenever something spooky (or just vaguely coincidental) happens.
For once, it sounds great when you use a guitar pick to play it. The pick gives it a harsh, piercing tone. If you want to recreate it with fingers, use you nails and pick close to the bridge.
The tune itself is so non-scary that The Wiggles would have rejected it as a little pedestrian. If you really want to scare people, play them the MC Hammer version (it’s enough to frighten the parachute pants off even the most superdope of homeboys).
Anyhoo, back to the real thing. If you’re playing the full, the intro goes like this:
If you’re just going to break out the intro, then it’s easier to play it this way:
I first tackled this tab way back at the beginning of the blog and have long wanted to give it another stab. Now nine years later here’s my attempt. I’ve left the original version below so you can judge for yourself if I’ve improved at all in the last decade.
The main theme starts in bar 9. I’ve arranged this so that all the notes ring into each other and create a spooky Gm9 chord. It gets tricky, suitably enough, in bar 13 when the tune switches up a notch. I play the note at the fourth fret with my third finger giving me just enough time to barre my first finger across the third fret. Moving down is easier; you can use the open string to give you time to get the chord shape ready.