Celebrate the season & start a dance party in your true wireless earbuds while you’re raking the leaves w/ RHCP, Post Malone, Talking Heads & more.
Changing leaves bring late autumn heatwaves. We’re not meteorologists, but our extended forecast shows a 100% chance of these spicy hot tracks starting a dance party in your true wireless earbuds while you’re raking the leaves.
For those sweater-in-the-morning, shorts-in-the-afternoon, raincoat-at-night-kind of days, here’s 🎃🌶️— a high-energy playlist to get you pumped up for the last warm days of the season.
Press play to spark up a good time at bonfires, hayrides, haunted houses, tailgate parties, ghost hunting trips, fantasy football watch parties—whatever lights your fire.
Talking Heads — “Burning Down the House”
Talking Heads fired up the charts with the P-Funk-inspired “Burning Down the House,” the scorching funk via new wave single from their 1983 LP, Speaking In Tongues.
Bassist Tina Weymouth and guitarist Jerry Harrison trade strings for synths to bring some electronic heat to this firestarter track, which also features Level 42’s Wally Badarou on keys for a three-oscillator triple threat of early ‘80s new wave dance floor fire.
P-Funk’s influence comes full circle on the live version seen in director Jonathan Demme’s (The Silence of the Lambs) concert film Stop Making Sense. The whole set is fire front to back, but really, it’s worth it just for the solo by Parliament-Funkadelic synth wizard Bernie Worrell, who joined the Talking Heads live band during P-Funk’s ‘80s hiatus.
Nelly — “Hot In Herre”
Nelly ushered in a heatwave of midwestern rap bangers with “Hot In Herre,” the first single from the St. Louis hip-hop hitmaker’s second album, Nellyville.
The song’s shifty switch from minor to major before the first verse is a sneaky piece of musical subterfuge from producers the Neptunes, who crafted the song’s white-hot beat for Nelly to spit his high-heat rhymes over.
“Hot In Herre” also raised the temperature at the 2003 Grammys, where it won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance.
Red Hot Chili Peppers — “Tippa My Tongue”
Maybe the local farmer’s market is wrapping up for the season, but Red Hot Chili Peppers are still ripe on the spicy 2022 funk-rock ripper “Tippa My Tongue.”
The bountiful John Frusciante renaissance that began with the guitarist’s 2019 return to the group continues on the debut single from RHCP’s upcoming thirteenth studio album, Return of the Dream Canteen.
Frusciante must be rocking at least 1.21 gigawatts of guitar power on this song, because it sounds like the Chili Peppers travelled back in time with producer Rick Rubin to record an even better version of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Don’t stand too close to this one or you’ll get burned. It’s just that good.
Hot Hot Heat — “Bandages”
Canadian post-punk revivalists Hot Hot Heat spark up a good time on “Bandages,” the spiky and angular first single from their first full-length album, 2002’s Make Up the Breakdown.
Hot Hot Heat formed in 1999 in Victoria, British Columbia but it didn’t take long for the group’s self-released 7” singles to register on the thermal sensors in Seattle at Sub Pop Records, who signed the band in 2001.
With Sub Pop in their corner, Hot Hot Heat enlisted the maverick grunge producer Jack Endino, (Nirvana, L7, Soundgarden) notable for his raw-yet-crisp analog production style that lights up a good set of wireless earbuds like dry kindling.
Smashing Pumpkins — “Quiet”
Representing the jack-o-lantern emoji, here’s Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins with “Quiet,” from their 1993 grunge masterpiece, Siamese Dream.
Corgan stacks fiery fuzz guitar tracks higher than the Wicker Man on this prog-sludge mindmelter. Instead of enhancing his sound with reverb or delay, Corgan overdubbed as many as forty tracks on some songs to lend the guitar tones on Siamese Dream their thermodynamic intensity.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs — “Burning”
“Burning,” the latest single from Cool It Down (2022), Yeah Yeah Yeahs first album in nine years, is inspired by true events. Also, a real fire.
In a press release, Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocalist Karen O explains how it all went down:
Back when I was 19 living in the East Village, one night a roommate dragged me out of the apartment for an impromptu drink across the street, I left a votive candle burning…which in my absence set flame to my room. Within an hour and a half… firefighters had come and gone.
All electronic goods were melted and demolished like my laptop, cameras, etc., but oddly enough the items that held the most sentimental value remained intact like sketchbooks, a favorite sweater with hearts across the chest, and photographs.
Type O Negative — “Cinnamon Girl”
Goth-metal bashers Type O Negative spice up Neil Young’s classic rock anthem “Cinnamon Girl” with a spooky, industrial twist on a fall favorite.
Peter Steele (bass/vocals) & co. let their hair down and their rock ‘n roll roots show on this tom-tom heavy, tongue-in-cheek (or is it?) cover version from Type O’s 1996 album October Rust.
And just how heavy, exactly, is the Type O Negative take on “Cinnamon Girl?” Heavy enough that in 2017, Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward named October Rust one of his top-ten heavy metal albums of all-time in Rolling Stone.
Donna Summer — “Hot Stuff (12” Version)”
Donna Summer burns up the mic on “Hot Stuff,” the Queen of Disco’s dance/rock hybrid hit from the triple-platinum 1979 album, Bad Girls.
Joining Summer and her constant collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Pete Melotte on guitar is Doobie Brother (and Steely Dan sideman) Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, who plays a dynamite solo on this explosive crossover smash.
“Hot Stuff” incinerated the charts, spending fourteen weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 top ten—the longest chart run of any song released in 1979.
Ty Dolla $ign (feat. Post Malone) — “Spicy”
Lighting strikes twice on “Spicy,” the second hit from the dynamic duo of hip-hop party jams: Ty Dolla $ign and Post Malone, following up on their 2018 hit “Psycho” with another dance club heater.
Here’s a friendly reminder to check your fire extinguisher because Ty Dolla $ign’s beat on “Spicy” is a three-alarm banger. Season to taste with Post Malone’s original recipe and now you’re cooking with gas.
Ohio Players — “Fire”
Scorching your tongue on a pumpkin spice latte isn't the only way to turn up the heat this season. Queue up "Fire" by Ohio Players to turn any breezy autumn night into a party that'll burn down the house.
Much like the smell of crisp leaves, there's no mistaking that funky bassline from Marshall "Rock" Jones. In 1974, "Fire" stole the #1 spot on the US R&B charts, leading the Ohio Players into the realm of funk royalty. "Fire" is title track of their third studio album, which remained at the top of the charts for five consecutive weeks.
The Cure — “Hot Hot Hot!!!”
The Cure released "Hot Hot Hot!!!" in 1988 on their seventh album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Like their stage presence, the music video is appropriately outlandish (vaudeville puppets and all).
Upbeat and erratic, "Hot Hot Hot!!!" became an international hit as The Cure entered the mainstream spotlight in the late '80s. Despite the lineup changes the band went through, lead singer Robert Smith—who at one point played in three bands at the same time—always brings his distinctive style to the table.
When acoustic "sweater weather" anthems aren't cutting it, "Hot Hot Hot!!!" will add that extra dose of ‘weird’ that you're looking for during the spooky season.
