Category Archives: All Music Spectacular

December 19, 2021 – Christmas Music Special

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Come on in everybody, and thanks for joining us on The Arcade’s 15th annual Christmas Music Special!

The M.O. for this show is to bring you music for the season you probably haven’t heard before. And boy howdy, do we deliver on that once again this year. Kicking off this year’s show is the Ludicrous Leadoffs, which are themed around internet humor and Christmas comedy. What falls into that category, you might ask? Well, Jon Lajoie for starters, followed by Garfunkel & Oates, the band My Dick out of Ohio, as well as a holiday assortment of audio treats from Homestar Runner. Looking to keep the good times rolling and bring a bit more energy to the party, we take a trip down to the Big Easy for a New Orleans Christmas which features some jazzy tunes, some Dixieland ditties, and the great “Satchmo” himself, Louis Armstrong. If you’ve listened to any of these music shows through the years, you’ll know that Mike and Dennis enjoy music on the heavier side of the spectrum. It shouldn’t surprise you then that this year’s Christmas show has some metal music offerings. Specifically, these are metal songs covering or inspired by classic Christmas movies. That isn’t the only group of darker holiday music we have for you as we also dig into the world of music from Christmas monster movies. Yes, it’s true, Christmas monster movies are totally a thing. Tune in to learn more!

As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to add these songs to your collection. We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Everything and Happy New Year!

What Was Played:
(click on the links below to listen)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who has to quickly mentally prepare for an in-person Christmas this year

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October 29, 2021 – Halloween Music Special

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Come one, come all and listen if you dare, to our Halloween show that will give you a scare.  The plan this year is to make Halloween killer, with songs aplenty that give you a chiller.  We play tunes about people who like to kill, all to give you people a great big thrill.  There’s music about psychos and songs with horns.  There’s even a song about that dreaded candy corn.  So open your ears and let the sound flow in between as we bring you this show for Halloween.

What Was Played:
(click on the links below to listen!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who thinks that this year’s worst Halloween costume is a “Sexy Anti-Vaxxer”.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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December 19, 2020 – 14th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Welcome one and welcome all to our 14th annual Christmas Music Special! Holiday traditions might be looking a bit different this year, but this is one that forges ahead.

As always, we here at The Arcade endeavor to bring you some Christmas music selections that you’ve probably never heard before, and this year is no different. We start this show with not one, not two, but three unique twists on the old Chipmunk song, Christmas Don’t Be Late. After that, we share a selection of songs that attempt to accurately capture the Christmas mood as it exists in 2020, this the year of the endless dumpster fire. That is to say, it’s Christmas music for when you’re just not feeling Christmas this year! If that brings you down a bit, don’t worry, because we’ll try and lift your spirits with some songs from across the pond in the UK. To close out this year’s show, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of a truly timeless Christmas movie, Home Alone. We’ll share a selection of songs composed by John Williams from some of the movie’s most memorable moments.

As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to add these songs to your collection. We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What Was Played:
(click on the links to listen!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who, for a change, is okay with how woefully underprepared for Christmas he is

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

October 30, 2020 – Halloween Music Special

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Hello, world. Given the roller-coaster ride everyone and everything has been on the last several months, at least we have a small bit of normalcy return with our annual Halloween Music Special! As always, we strive to present a selection of seasonally appropriate ditties that you’ve never heard before. Sorry, friends, but you won’t be hearing the Monster Mash, Thriller, or the Ghostbusters theme here. We start this year’s show with a group of songs themed around the idea of “Halloween in the Old West”, which brings us songs from Sir Christopher Lee, country singer Buck Owens, and the game Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. After the Old West, we take a trip back in time with a handful of selections from when the music industry was an actual industry and cranked out Halloween novelty songs like clockwork. Returning for another appearance is the Obligatory Metal Group, which this year is themed around cannibals and features choice cuts from Cannibal Corpse, Heaven & Hell, and a pre-Type O Negative song from Peter Steele. Rounding out this year’s program is a group of songs that honors the many appearances of the world’s foremost bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice! We’ll be honoring the character with some selections from the Beetlejuice soundtrack, the animated series, some of his video game appearances, as well as from the recent big-budget Broadway musical. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some haunting sounds during these spooky times.

What Was Played:
(click on the links below to listen!)

Dennis’s Nickname:

The man who thinks that this year’s worst Halloween costume is a “Sexy Anti-Masker”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

October 25, 2019 – Halloween Music Special

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Halloween season is back up upon again, which means it’s time for us here at The Arcade to rescue you from the never-ending barrage of Thriller, the Monster Mash, and the Ghostbusters theme. You see, every year at this time, we make it our mission to seek out and bring you Halloween music you won’t hear anywhere else and, by gawd, we’ve outdone ourselves this year. Leading off this year’s proceedings is one of the most recognizable voices in all things spooky, Vincent Price. From there, we share a version of the Monster Mash that combines the well-known song with 1980’s hip-hop, a ditty from the cult classic movie Phantom of the Paradise, and a pair of songs from Bob’s Burgers and South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut. After our opening pack of Ludicrous Leadoffs, we move on and give attention and praise to a character that doesn’t get much love this time of year, the Devil. We give our regards to the Dark Lord with a pack of songs ranging from Robert Johnson all the way to a track from Cuphead. After saying “hi” to Satan, it’s only appropriate that present the Obligatory Metal Group, which, as you can tell by the name, is something we do every year. Serenading you with metal tones this year is Mercyful Fate, Dissolution, and one of the most Halloween appropriate bands of all-time, KISS. Wrapping up our Halloween show for 2019 is Christopher Lee performing a reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic, The Tell-Tale Heart. It’s only appropriate to bookend the show with Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, two of the best voices for Halloween, ever.

What Was Played:
(add these songs to your collection with the links below!)

Dennis’s Nickname:

The man who will be going as himself this year for Halloween

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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December 22/18 – January 4/19 – 12th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Friends, the holiday season is firmly upon us and what better way to feel the warmth of the season than with our 12th annual Christmas Music Special.  As we have with all of our past Christmas Music Specials, we endeavor to bring you some holiday songs that you probably haven’t heard before because, by this point, Jingle Bell Rock is rocked out and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is hard to take after the 786th listen.

On the show this year, we bring you a festive assortment of musical treats spanning different countries, eras, and genres too.  We start things off with some “prime cuts” from the new holiday album by recently released by William Shatner.  After that experience, we go back in time to a bygone era to experience some classic soul Christmas music from the likes of Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and the recently departed Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.  From there, the show makes a hard left turn and comes home for an all-Canadian Christmas group which spans the country by including the Crash Test Dummies, Dan Mangan, the Barenaked Ladies, and the late Rita MacNeil.  Closing out the show, we wanted to lift you up out of your chair and get you moving, so we put together a little bit of a Christmas dance party.  Because, why wouldn’t we?  Getting you bopping around will be tunes from Dragonette, John Legend, Dinosaur Jr., Eton John, and RuPaul.

As always, we encourage you to follow the iTunes links below to purchase these songs for yourself and add them to your collection.  We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The Christmas miracle

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

October 26, 2018 – Halloween Music Special

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Halloween season is upon us, and we here at The Arcade are thrilled to bring you our annual Halloween Music Special!  Unlike pretty much every other outlet at this time of year, we get our hands dirty and dig deep to unearth some of the finest and most enjoyable Halloween music you won’t hear anywhere else. We’ll start this year’s proceedings with a group of songs focused on what we’re calling “ancient evil”. No, it’s not recordings of pagan ceremonies, but it is all British music about the occult/Satan from the 1960’s. From there comes the obligatory metal group, which, this year, has a decidedly Canadian bent to it. Once the metal is out of the way, we focus on a genre which has really been underrepresented in previous Halloween Music Specials, hip-hop. There’s a rich world of horror-themed hip-hop out there, and we’re presenting just the tip of the iceberg this year. This year’s show ends off focusing on the haunting sounds of Peter Steele. The former frontman of Type O Negative had one of the deepest and most distinct voices in rock, and we found a few tracks that perfectly illustrate how perfect Peter Steele’s voice was for Halloween.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’s Nickname:

The man who hopes to get more Trick-Or -Treaters this year, if only to save him from the inevitable leftover candy hangover he’ll inflict upon himself

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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December 15-29, 2017 – 11th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Friends, the holiday season is now upon and what better way to celebrate than with our 11th annual Christmas Music Special.  It’s easy to get bored and tired of the same Christmas songs year in and year out, which why we’ve have our noses to the grindstone working hard to dig up some rare gems you won’t hear anywhere else.

On this year’s program, we turn to the world of video games for the first-time ever for some new seasonal favorites from Nights into Dreams, Super Mario 3D World, Blue Stinger, Sonic 3D Blast, Mario Kart 8, and Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday.  Yes, you read that right, music from a Parasite Eve game has found its way onto one of our Christmas specials.  From the new, modern art form of video games, we pivot and dabble in the art form of classic comedy from the National Lampoon.  After starting life as a successful comedy publication, the National Lampoon branched out and began a syndicated radio show in the 1970’s.  During its brief run, the National Lampoon Radio Hour gave us two Christmas specials, which we’ll share some of the best clips from.  Cold winter weather got you down?  Don’t frown, because we’ll be giving you warm vibes with a few reggae holiday songs from Yellowman.  Rounding out this year’s program, we turn the show into a drag queen Christmas, because yes, that’s totally a thing.  If you’ve watched any of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you’re likely already familiar with names such as Jackie Beat, Jinkx Monsoon, and Bob the Drag Queen.  But did you know a number of contestants from past seasons of Drag Race have come together to form the Christmas Queens?  And they have released a few, highly entertaining Christmas albums?  Don’t worry, we’ll fill you in on all that you’ve been missing.

As always, we encourage you to follow the iTunes links below to purchase these songs for yourself and add them to your collection.  We hope you this show as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The Stocking Stuffer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

October 27, 2017 – Halloween Music Special

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Halloween season is upon us once again, which means that we here at The Arcade are back with our annual Halloween Music Special.  When it comes to this time of year, you always hear Thriller, Monster Mash, and the Ghostbusters theme being played everywhere you go.  Sure, they’re appropriate for the season and all, but sometimes, people are just lazy and fall back to those without a second thought.  Thankfully, we here at The Arcade are anything but lazy and have once again compiled a setlist of music you won’t hear anywhere else this Halloween.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’s Nickname:

The sexy costume

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Dec. 16-Dec. 30, 2016 – 10th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Around this time of year, everybody has certain traditions that they look forward to and we here at The Arcade are no different, which is why we’re proud to present to you our 10th Annual Christmas Music Special.  Yes, you read that correctly, this is our tenth time doing a special show for the holidays and in all that time, our goal of bringing you Christmas music you’ve never heard before has never changed.  If anything, we’ve learned in these past ten years that the world of Christmas music is almost endless, and the amount we get exposed to each season represents only a small fraction of what’s out there.

As tradition dictates on these shows, we start off with the Ludicrous Leadoffs, those Christmas songs that are just an extra kind of special, and this year, we have Bill Murray and George Clooney crooning, a song about a zombie Christmas, and a ridiculous parody of the overplayed song Do They Know It’s Christmas.  From there, we go to a totally unique genre with dubstep covers of classic Christmas music, before showcasing something special for our friends of the Jewish faith with a collection of songs all about Hanukkah. We end off this year’s program by bookending our Halloween music show.  If you recall, that episode began with silly hip-hop songs which were lacking in street cred.  Well, on this show, we present seasonally-appropriate songs from hip-hop artists with immense street cred, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and even Eazy-E himself.  Yes, Eazy-E did a Christmas song, and yes, it’s every bit as explicit as you think it might be.  You’ve been warned.

As always, we encourage you to follow the iTunes links below to purchase these songs for yourself and add them to your collection.  We hope you this show as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The giver of presents, the taker of souls

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS