WEEKEND Halloween Mixtape

To listen to WEEKEND's Halloween mixtape on Spotify, click here.

Side A

Dead Kennedys: “Halloween” — Considerably less on-the-nose than its name suggests, the finest Dead Kennedys song puts an October twist on the punk band’s trademark piss and vinegar anti-authoritarianism.

Type O Negative: “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” — With his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Type O singer Peter Steele pines for a gothic lover whose “perfume smells like burning leaves.” Sexy.

The National: “Afraid of Everyone” — Paranoia and self-doubt can be scarier than any monster, and National frontman Matt Berninger demonstrates that perfectly with the best song from 2010’s “High Violet.”

Björk: “Dark Matter” — The darkest cut on the Icelandic singer’s ambitious “Biophilia” project is perhaps the spookiest thing she’s ever done, and that’s saying something.

Sufjan Stevens: “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” — The breathy singer-songwriter’s ballad about notorious clown-painted serial killer John Wayne Gacy is as gorgeous as it is deeply unsettling.

Radiohead: “Bodysnatchers” — Thom Yorke and company are in full weirdo rock-out mode on this sci-fi horror-inspired megahit from “In Rainbows.”

Side B

Tyler, the Creator: “Transylvania” — The verses are Tyler at his most vulgar, but somehow the refrain of “I’m Dracula, bitch” is just over-the-top enough to make “Transylvania” a lot of stupid, schlocky fun.

W.A. Mozart: “Don Giovanni, A Cenar Teco” — The slain Commendatore rises from the grave to drag his nobleman murderer to hell with an otherworldly basso part and discordant D-minor strings. Opera was never more terrifying.

Warren Zevon: “Werewolves of London” — Zevon’s most famous tune manages to make a lupine takeover of one of the biggest cities in the world sound like a rollicking good time.

Mercyful Fate: “At the Sound of the Demon Bell” — This track from one of the finest metal albums of the 1980s rocks so hard it’s easy to forget that singer King Diamond was pretty serious about all that demon-conjuring.

Nicolo Paganini: “Moses Fantasy” — This enchanting violin piece is played on just the G string because by the time Paganini got to it in his live performances, it was the only one he hadn’t snapped with his demonic playing.

The Cranberries: “Zombie” — The biggest international hit by the Irish alt-rockers is most likely about World War I, but with that chorus (“What’s in your head, zombie?”), what better reappropriation than Halloween?