Heather Franks via Flickr

It's the time of year when lots of people are putting together a playlist of songs for Halloween and Halloween parties, and plenty of spooky tunes to choose from. But rather than just throw on a bunch of novelty songs like "Monster Mash," it might be more fun to try to find tunes that are played less often.

For some reason, even though Halloween is gaining on Christmas in popularity, there are a ton of Christmas songs, and not so many paying tribute to the darker holiday. Yet we can always hope for more.

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Photo by Mark C. Austin

Let's have a talk about the Flaming Lips. The Oklahoma City band made their name in the '90s alt-rock scene with "She Don't Use Jelly," but they were nothing like their contemporaries. Their history was checkered with intense experimentation, and that song was an outlier in their catalog.

This sort of teeter-totter balance between accessible, mainstream rock music and vast sonic experimentation has continued unabated as the Lips have become one of the most successful bands in modern music. But as they've gotten more famous and more financially stable, the whole thing might be growing stale.

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Photo courtesy of Red Light Management

For Gogol Bordello, every day is Halloween.

Leading up to Friday's Halloween-night performance at Warehouse Live, front man Eugene Hütz says that his band of misfits doesn't have anything specifically spooky planned, but that it would be out of character for them to bring anything less than their very best.

"We're kind of a band that never developed a routine," he says. "Anything celebratory, we're kind of a natural fit for it."

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Welcome to Ask Willie D, Rocks Off's advice column where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, "funny, serious or unpredictable." Something on your mind? Ask Willie D!

Photo by Mario Jaramillo

SHOULD I CALL CPS ON MY MOM?

Dear Willie D:

So we're at the mall and I told my mom that I didn't feel like going back to the car to get her sunglasses, and she slaps me hard in the face in front of everybody. This isn't the first time she's hit me. I get beatings all the time for small stuff. I don't think it's fair the way she treats me. Just because I'm her child doesn't give her a right to abuse me.

I don't know if it's because they are both females that she treats my sister differently, but this is not right. The next time she hits me I'm going to call CPS (Child Protective Services) and report her. The only thing is I'm afraid they may take me away from my sister. I'm 15; what should I do?

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Dave Parker via Flickr

Draped up and dripped out, know what I'm talkin' 'bout?

Much like Bun B, who wrote those lyrics, you do know what I'm talkin' 'bout. And you also know that all things draped up and dripped out are badass, especially when they are songs from the dirty south.

Whether it's swangin' and bangin' or sippin' on some sizzurp, those legendary rappers from the south knows just how to get down. Happy trunk-poppin' Throwback Thursday, y'all. Just make sure to swang to the left, aight?

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Photos by Jim Bricker (except noted)

This weekend you could be carving pumpkins and handing out candy, or doing something much cooler by jumping in the car and heading to New Orleans for the 16th annual Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. Costumed freaks and music fans alike will be descending on the historic City Park for three days of music and entertainment from the likes of Foo Fighters, Outkast, Skrillex, Arctic Monkeys, Pretty Lights, Slayer, Gogol Bordello, Death From Above 1979 and a whole bunch of other great acts.

If you've never been to New Orleans during Halloween time, you're missing out. The addition of a great festival to take your days away before taking to the city at night is even more reason to head to the Big Easy for a few days of good music, delicious grub and a bit of debauchery thrown in for good measure.

If that isn't enough, here are ten more reasons that should give you that final push out of the door come Halloween morning.

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Photo by Groovehouse

Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler in 2011

So you say you don't have anything to do on Halloween. Maybe all your plans have fallen apart, or you just don't feel like going to a party or a bar's cheesy costume contest this year. That's okay, because Houston has you covered.

This year Halloween falls on a Friday, which means that you have a whole weekend's worth of events that will take care of your every Halloween planning need. Here are our picks for the best shows going on to sate your thirst for some fun on the greatest holiday of the year.

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MIXTAPE OF THE WEEK: DeLorean, Look Alive
Is DeLorean underrated, overrated or properly rated?

We've been dancing around this thought for a little while now. You see, the rapper is responsible for two of the city's most noted projects of the past five years, Hood Politics 2: Acknowledgment and Hood Politics 3. One featured unfiltered anger and gulps of fire and brimstone, delivered with a sense of personality and even fear. The other was more polished, detonated with a massive "crowning" concert and affirmed what plenty had long considered about the Missouri City rapper: he was finally slipping past those pesky Jay Z comparisons and into his own skin.

Then last year's Grace happened, and while it felt bigger in terms of featured guests, it truly felt like DeLorean had reached the cusp of something. Whatever angle you want to pen in regards to someone being close to mainstream and radio-ready, that was Grace in a nutshell.

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Mike Kalasnik via Flickr

Sluggerrr is ready for Game 7.

Right now Texans are in the middle of football season, and therefore even attempting to talk about any other pro sports amounts to ripping a wet fart into the wind -- unless it's the Rockets, and most of us Houstonians can't watch them on TV anyway. But in case you haven't noticed, and you probably haven't, the Major League Baseball fans among us have been enjoying one of the most entertaining postseasons in ages.

It ends tonight, one way or another, when the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants meet in the first World Series Game 7 in three years. And while it's been fun to watch former Astro Hunter Pence's slow transformation into Hayes Carll, once you watch them play a little while it's nearly impossible not to root for the club from Kansas City. Not only do they bunt and steal bases and move runners over and make spectacular outfield catches, but the Royals also have the most entertaining mascot in the major leagues, a goofy-ass lion named Sluggerrr.

Thus far the most interesting music-related news to come out of this series is ex-Staind singer/current country solo artist Aaron Lewis' three-base error while singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 5 at San Francisco's AT&T Park. Even Sluggerrr could have sang better than that.

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It's been interesting to watch Something Wicked grow over the past three years. Walking into the festival on Saturday, it was easy to forget that in the grand scheme of things it's still a very young fest. Quite frankly, between the lineup and the stage designs, the people behind the festival have done a real good job making it feel like an Event as opposed to Just Another Houston Music Festival.

That's probably why it attracted folks from all over the state and beyond to attend. On social media, there were tweets of people spending 12 hours in a car just to rage in Houston. Not bad for a city that isn't particularly associated with EDM.

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