Ghosts, witches, strange guitar sounds and a few things moving in the dark: these are 20 of our favorite Halloween indie and alternative songs, rescued from the IRC archives.
A good Halloween soundtrack gets under your skin. Sometimes it takes a wall of guitar noise; sometimes a single voice does the damage. We went back through IRC’s Halloween playlists posted over the past 15 years for songs that already earned their place on indie/alt rock Halloween playlists through atmosphere, storytelling and sheer nervous energy.
This first installment of two moves from ghostly indie pop to uneasy psychedelia, including a pair of older, and to most people unknown, Kinks’ tracks from the late 1960s (the band’s hey days) that are featured because they’re great tracks (like so many lesser-known Kinks’ songs). What we love about this playlist is that it highlights tracks not just for their Halloweenish themes and vibes, but that it includes artists and bands that have been featured on IRC for the past 19 years.
So get freaked out, spin a grade A playlist and please share with others on your socials and like in your Spotify.
20 Essential Halloween Indie and Alt Rock Songs
1. Band of Horses — “Is There a Ghost” (2007)
Ben Bridwell turns a sleepless question into an anthem, with a fragile opening that gives way to a rush of guitars. The repeated words leave the haunting unresolved, which is exactly why the song works after dark.
From Cease to Begin · Listen on Bandcamp
2. Spoon — “The Ghost of You Lingers” (2007)
A stubborn piano figure and voices drifting through empty space make this one of Spoon’s most unsettling recordings. Its power comes from what seems to be missing: the room feels occupied, but nobody quite steps into view.
From Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga · Listen on Spotify
3. Tegan and Sara — “Walking with a Ghost” (2004)
The clipped guitar hook keeps this moving while the repeated refrain circles a presence that will not leave. That mix of bright melody and lingering unease makes it an ideal early-evening Halloween song: immediately inviting, quietly obsessive.
From So Jealous · Listen on Spotify
4. Beach House — “Tokyo Witch” (2006)
Wavering keyboards and Victoria Legrand’s low voice give this early Beach House track the faded glow of an abandoned ballroom. The witch in the title opens the door; the recording’s dreamy, slightly unstable atmosphere keeps it ajar.
From Beach House · Listen on Bandcamp
5. Radiohead — “Bodysnatchers” (2007)
A snarling guitar riff gives physical force to the horror of feeling trapped inside an unfamiliar body. Thom Yorke sounds increasingly cornered, turning an old science-fiction nightmare into a sharp portrait of everyday alienation.
From In Rainbows · Listen on Spotify
6. Pavement — “The Hexx” (1999)
Pavement stretch their guitars across a slow, uneasy landscape, giving Stephen Malkmus plenty of room to sound ominous. The tension builds without offering much comfort, making this a particularly good choice for the walk home after the party.
From Terror Twilight · Listen on Bandcamp
7. Beck — “Scarecrow” (2005)
A thick, shuffling groove drags Beck’s harvest-field imagery into a strange nocturnal setting. The scarecrow supplies the Halloween silhouette, while the murky production gives it somewhere convincing to stand.
From Guero · Listen on Spotify
8. The Kinks — “Wicked Annabella” (1968)
Dave Davies’ rough-edged lead vocal and the grimy guitar sound give this village witch tale a nasty little pulse. It plays like a warning passed between children, with enough menace to outlast generations of Halloween decorations.
From The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society · Listen on Spotify
9. The Flaming Lips — “Convinced of the Hex” (2009)
The blunt rhythm and scuffed psychedelic textures make this feel like a ritual coming together in a basement. Wayne Coyne’s insistent delivery feeds the tension, turning the idea of a hex into something stubbornly hard to shake.
From Embryonic · Listen on Spotify
10. Sufjan Stevens — “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!” (2005)
Stevens brings the dead back through a busy arrangement, group chants and the names of Illinois communities. Beneath the playful horror sits a more troubling fear: people and places can disappear when nobody remembers them.
From Illinois · Listen on Spotify
11. M83 — “Graveyard Girl” (2008)
Gleaming synths and a sweeping melody surround a teenage outsider drawn to the cemetery. That contrast between romantic grandeur and private loneliness gives the track its Halloween appeal: everything shines, but the shadows remain.
From Saturdays = Youth · Listen on Bandcamp
12. Wolf Parade — “Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts” (2005)
Spencer Krug’s strained voice and the restless arrangement make these hungry ghosts sound impossible to satisfy. The song gives a Halloween mix a welcome jolt, with a nervous momentum that keeps its darker implications moving.
From Apologies to the Queen Mary · Listen on Bandcamp
13. Wintersleep — “Weighty Ghost” (2007)
The buoyant rhythm and communal chorus put warmth around the unnerving idea of feeling ghostlike in your own life. It is a generous, deeply catchy haunting that gives the playlist a little breathing room.
From Welcome to the Night Sky · Listen on Bandcamp
14. Wilco — “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” (2004)
A relentless pulse and bursts of guitar noise turn this ten-minute piece into a long corridor with flickering lights. Its Halloween credentials live in the tension: the groove keeps moving, and each eruption makes the next quiet stretch feel less secure.
From A Ghost Is Born · Listen on Bandcamp
15. Cat Power — “Werewolf” (2003)
Chan Marshall’s Michael Hurley cover finds the sadness inside the monster story. Her restrained delivery makes the werewolf seem wounded and terribly alone, bringing a human ache to the playlist’s supernatural cast.
From You Are Free · Listen on Spotify
16. The Clientele — “Here Comes the Phantom” (2007)
Alasdair MacLean’s hushed singing and the soft-focus arrangement make this phantom feel half remembered. Its graceful melancholy suits the quieter end of Halloween, when familiar streets start to look a little less familiar.
From God Save the Clientele · Listen on Bandcamp
17. Sonic Youth — “Hallowe’en” (1985)
Kim Gordon’s murmured vocal moves through a web of ringing, unstable guitar sounds. This is Halloween as a state of mind: close, disorienting and difficult to explain once the daylight returns.
Originally released with “Flower”; also available on expanded editions of Bad Moon Rising · Listen on Bandcamp
18. Starlight Mints — “Pumpkin” (2006)
The rubbery rhythm, bright arrangement and Allan Vest’s falsetto bring a crooked grin to the proceedings. This is the pick for a Halloween party that needs a little color: playful, peculiar and just odd enough to keep its pumpkin face from looking too friendly.
From Drowaton · Listen on Spotify
19. Franz Ferdinand — “This Fire” (2004)
Clipped guitars, a taut beat and Alex Kapranos’ mounting urgency give this IRC archive pick its place on the dance floor. The Halloween connection is in that feverish loss of control, making it useful when the party needs to break into a sweat.
From Franz Ferdinand · Spotify alternative
20. The Kinks — “Big Black Smoke” (1966)
A young woman’s escape to the city becomes a cautionary tale, carried by an insistent stomp and a gathering sense of trouble. As our earlier Halloween roundup noted, the seasonal pull comes from the title and atmosphere, giving this selection a final cloud of urban gloom.
Originally the B-side of “Dead End Street”; later collected on The Kink Kronikles · Official audio on YouTube
Selected from IRC’s Halloween archive. Release years refer to the recordings featured; linked services may also offer remasters. Artist and label release pages, linked above where available, were used to check the release details.