Following that gem, New Wave Halloween gets a bit cutesy, back-to-backing six tracks entitled "Halloween" by Siouxsie & The Banshees, Dream Syndicate, Sonic Youth, Dead Kennedys, Mistfits and Mudhoney in turn. (The Mudhoney track's a cheat since it's a cover of the Sonic Youth original.) Stand out here is the Dream Syndicate's Velvety cut from that band's first long-player. How the song relates lyrically to All Hallows Eve isn't all that clear, but it sounds ominous and droney and has great guitar besides. (Which reminds me: if they can include a Mudhoney song from 1989, why not Lou Reed's "Halloween Parade" from his New York album?) I also enjoy Jello Biafra's celebration to October 31st vandalism, though its finale along with the spoken-word refs to being "fucked with" on the Sonic Youth/Mudhoney entries pretty much guarantee that this is one disc that won't be played much at kids' parties. Ah well, there are Dr. Demento and Elvira discs out there for that.

New Wave Halloween concludes with psychedelic wildman Roky Erickson's "Creature with the Atom Brain," from his unjustly neglected 1981 album, The Evil One. Can't really call the song new wave - or punk either, for that matter - just some basic hard-rockin' blues-based riffery that wouldn't sound out place on a Blue Oyster Cult album. But, c'mon, where else are you gonna find Roky Ericksen on a Halloween theme album?

As a representative set, the Rhino collection misses a few choice cuts: no Flesh Eaters or Rezillos? How about a coupla psycho killer tracks like Dead Boys' "Son of Sam" or the Undertones' "There Goes Norman"? And, by everything that's unholy, where the hell are the Cramps? No "TV Set," no "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," no "Zombie Dance" or "Goo Goo Muck" or (here's an answer to Dave Edmunds) "Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon"? Inexcusable, I calls it.

Still, this disc shows up in regular rotation at my house around this time of year (aw, who'm I kidding? - it gets played year 'round!) Just can't get enough of pop-rock with that crazy Samhain sow-und . . .