Scary Track: Sonic Youth - "Death Valley '69"

You may recall in my portion of the "scary music" list I mentioned the most listenable song on Sonic Youth's "Bad Moon Rising" was about Charles Manson. This would be it, an unusually straight-up rocker by SY standards. Guest vocalist Lydia Lunch pushes it into another realm of unsettling, though; her wailing throughout, especially through the extended near-spoken bit in the middle, is bone-chilling shit. The guitars work themselves into an apocalyptic lather as both vocalists shout "HIT IT" over and over like a mantra, Lunch's voice growing to a full-on scream, then bam, that riff slams back in.