It’s that time of year again when the leaves are changing, the lattes are pumpkin spiced and the season of the witch is upon us! It's Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, or another name that I can’t think of. 

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays if only for the fact that it is the one time of year where I give in and actually seek out a scary movie. The rest of the year I couldn’t care less about Freddy or Jason. But I'm not the only one, we all like to be spooked sometimes. Whether we’re going on roller coasters, haunted hayrides, haunted houses, or watching movies, we all love a good fright.

On this episode of TMSIWTH we are doing just that: talking about all things spooky! We have four tracks to get you all worked up before the night of the witch. 

• Track One: The Thing

• Track Two: The Drift

• Track Three: TMS Listening Party

• Track Four: The Afterlife

(2:06) We talk a lot on this show and on our website about the films that define us. Embarrassingly for me, it was Garden State. For our friend Nick Orsini, the one film that taught him the most about being a man was John Carpenter’s 1982 film, The Thing. If you haven’t seen it yet, stop what you’re doing and head over to Netflix or iTunes or Google Play and watch it. You can also read it here. 

(7:10) What do black cocaine, meat-punching percussion and crooning all have in common? Almost nothing... except for the fact that they all appear on Scott Walker’s 2006 album, The Drift. But in order to really appreciate what is happening here we have to go back to 1965.

In a year of music dominated by bubble gummy pop noises and early rock and roll anthems, the same year that the number one hit was "Wooly Bully", in that same year a group of guys formed a family band, despite not being a family and kick started one of the strangest and darkest careers in pop music.

(17:55) I would love nothing more than to just turn this entire show and the TMS website into a giant love letter to Kate Bush. As a 27 year old American male I should have never crossed paths with Kate Bush, and yet I have and she is always at the top of my list of all-time favorite singers. (Please note I didn’t say female singers, I need you to note that) She has the wacky and incredible ability to pull you into every note and every word of her songs. Her music is campy and theatrical and pretty great. Songs like “Babooshka” and “The Wedding List” have deep background stories and characters.

“Get Out of My House” is one of those songs. There’s so much going on, that you get lost in that thing. On this week’s Listening Party we’re going to listen to Get Out of My House together, not only because it’s super badass but because Kate has said that this song is her musical version of The Shining. If you weren’t a fan before this song, and the guttural screams from Bush should convert you.

(24:26) Perhaps the spookiest of all halloween themes is DEATH. 

Yet, we surround ourselves with movies and TV shows and books about that very topic. Perhaps to ease our own fears about that day when we take our last mortal breath, perhaps because we’re sick. Most likely it’s both.

To end the show today I want to share an excerpt from the excellent book Sum Forty Tales From the Afterlife by David Eagleman. The book shares several, I would say about 40, short pieces about what the afterlife may be. In one afterlife you are reincarnated as a horse, in another you are a background actor in someone else’s dreams. The book is meant to help unnerve the feeling of anxiety we get about death, at least that’s what I think. Each story turns out to be a mini Twilight Zone episode, really I can’t recommend it more highly.

• Do yourself and myself a favor and follow me on Twitter
• Buy Sum: Forty Tales From the Afterlife
• Pick up a Kate Bush album
• Follow Nick Orsini on Twitter, too!
• Buy the Scott Walker anthology