Scar Stuff – Vintage Children’s Halloween Records – Website

ScarStuff.com (Original Blogger Version)

My initial foray into the world of blogging and arcane record sharing, Scar Stuff (primarily active from Jan 2006 to Dec 2007) was intended to be a catch-all repository for the kind of audio I didn’t see anyone else presenting, or even really talking about, online.

Initially showcasing a somewhat broad array of sounds (thrift store finds, live recordings of punk rock bands I had made as a teenager, forgotten pop culture oddities), the blog seemed to connect the most when I used it as an avenue to share rips from my personal collection of Halloween and horror audio, with a particular emphasis on the out of print 1960’s & 1970’s children’s records I had been collecting since I was 5.

The response to these posts was many times more powerful than I ever imagined (especially given that I had never really found anyone else out there that seemed to care about these albums) and I truly did not expect the experience to be as fantastic, uplifting and positive as it ultimately was.

Most of the actual audio files are gone now but due to the fact that Scar Stuff was the first blog of its kind I attracted a SuperAmazing readership, and the miles and miles of info, excitement and memories around these records that they shared are still archived as comments at the old site.

Various Ghouls “Spook Party” (Scar Stuff, 2000)

Various Spooks “Ghoul-Arama” (Scar Stuff, 2001)

One of the more popular posts that I ever shared at Scar Stuff concerned two Halloween themed CD compilations that I had created as physical giveaways in the pre-mass-digital file era of 2000 and 2001.

For those folks who might not feel like clicking on the link above, here’s the text of my original post along with links to download the files if desired:

What we have here are rips of some discs that I made about 5-6 years ago and gave away as free Halloween presents. As I’ve mentioned in the comments section before, both were heavily based on an annual Halloween radio show I used to do, and though I’d kinda intended on making them a yearly event I’ve never fully fleshed out any real follow-ups.

So why am I sharing a pair of homemade music comps? Well even though song-wise there’s a bit of crossover with some of the other fine collections that have come along since then (& before), the main difference here is that in addition to programming a bunch of, you know, bitchin’ Halloween tunes, I was also trying to create a spooky “seamless whole”. What this means is that in addition to the music (for better or worse), I also stitched together a non-stop stream of effects, sound bites and audio samples that run over/ under/ alongside the songs, to kinda create my twisted ideal of an evocative “Halloween vibe” (vinyl pops & crackles included). Whether or not I succeeded is debatable, but I certainly did throw a lot of crap into the blender (and since sometimes there are at least 8 audio tracks playing at once it’s probably safe to say that my audio sensibilities are as cluttered as my visual ones). Prior to this post it had actually been a while since I’d last listened to these, but in checking them out again I think that despite the occasional clunker, I managed a few really cool segues here and there. There’s also some, *koff koff*, truly horrible audio quality on a few of the samples (plenty of this was sourced from crummy old VHS tapes & worse), but that just contributes to the intended low-budget feel, right? Oh and there’s a LOT of wind & rain. A LOT.

Now believe it or not, over the years at least 3 or 4 other folks have actually duped these off themselves (heh, after changing the credits on my covers to make it look like they’d personally cooked ’em up) to sell on ebay and at horror cons. I guess they were successful (you don’t want to know how much I saw some copies going for) but hopefully this post will get ’em back out there for free like they oughtta be. Hey, I’ve even included CD sized jpegs in the zip files so you can print out your own covers if you’re so inclined. Happy Halloween, pal!

Various Ghouls “Spook Party” (192 kbps)

Various Spooks “Ghoul-Arama” (192 kbps)