Are you zany for zombies? Do you heart things that make your heart pound? Lustful for that which is loathsome? Most importantly: Are you a music maniac? If you answered affirmatively to each of those absurdly alliterative queries, you're in the right place. Few towns do Halloween—or music—like Athens. And when songcraft meets witchcraft, you're just asking for (the fun kind of) trouble. Here's a list of the festering festivities going on this week.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25

Stuff starts getting Halloween-y early at Max, where the Hallo-Weird Weekend Kickoff invades the patio with a special set from L.A.-based puppeteer, songwriter and noted public access figure David Liebe Hart, who's perhaps best known for his work on the surrealist sketch comedy program "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" Also performing: local faux-Satanist metal band Manger. This is going to be a very strange evening.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26

OK, so it's not technically a Halloween show, and maybe I'm being a little bit of a jerk here (albeit a funny jerk—right? RIGHT?), but grey-bearded '60s country-psych dudes New Riders of the Purple Sage are playing New Earth Music Hall. Get it? Because, like, there's only like one original member in the group, so it's basically a cover band. Ha ha. Seriously though, those guys are great.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27

For all intents and purposes, the Saturday closest to Halloween is Halloween in Athens. If the holiday happens to fall on a Saturday, it's an added bonus. This year it's on a Wednesday, which is lame. But not to worry! In addition to the Wild Rumpus, Athens' annual ode to all things kooky and spooky, Saturday night features more than enough live music happenings to whet your appetite for destruction.

First, there's the official Rumpus afterparty at the Georgia Theatre, featuring of Montreal, Velveteen Pink and Kite to the Moon. That show boasts all sorts of craziness, like trapeze swinging (courtesy of the Tiger Girlz), Beck covers (via a Velveteen Pink and Kite to the Moon collaborative set) and of Montreal doing, you know, whatever it is of Montreal does these days. Something wild, I bet!

There are cover shows galore. Farm 255 will host the Modern Lovers cover band—which does its thing quite well—along with junk-punkers Ritvals covering The Ramones, Muuy Biien as The Stooges and The Rodney Kings performing songs by Zero Boys. Sounds a-OK to me.

Over at Flicker, you can catch a motley crew of locals covering the tunes of, no, not Mötley Crüe, but rather garage-punk icons The Cramps and The Mummies. And Little Kings will host something they're calling the Night of the Living Dead Party, featuring zombie-riffic sets from Los Meesfits, TaterZandra, Incendiaries and a special horror-punk DJ set from DJ Lozo.

And back at New Earth, there's an actual cover show going on: Packway Handle Band will tackle the tunes of Devo with an all-acoustic set.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31

OK, I lied a tiny bit before when I said Saturday was Halloween. Halloween is still Halloween, no matter where it happens to fall during the week. Hope you remembered to buy candy! Also, hope you didn't eat it all already.

Oh yeah, music. After you're done handing out one week's salary's worth of mini-Kit Kats (good) or those weird, industrially packaged, vaguely peanut butter-flavored chews (BAD), there are a couple of sweet options for mid-week Halloween fun times. (Unless you're one of those awful people who turns off your porch light and bah-humbugs your way through Halloween. Sorry. You don't get to see any shows.)

At Go Bar, Ritvals and Yip Deceiver will perform various cover tunes, Kara Kildare will play a set of songs by Diamanda Galas and a newly assembled band will do portions of Goblin's Suspiria soundtrack while dancers perform and recreate sequences from the classic horror film. Afterwards, DJ Fog Juice will spin spooky dance hits.

Then, check Farm 255, where a night of fine dining will be capped with performances from the aforementioned Mummies cover band and a Beat Happening tribute act. You're wondering: Who the hell covers Beat Happening? Athens does, that's who. Also on the bill? The Talking Heads cover band, which will invite audience members to sing "karaoke" along with it.

Back at Little Kings, you can catch more Cramps covers, courtesy of De Lux Interiors. Also on that bill? Slaw and Order doing "various covers," as well as sure-to-be-undeadly sets from noted DJs Mahogany and Justin Legend.

Save some energy. On Wednesday, the 40 Watt is host to arguably the hottest Halloween action of all. Athens' favorite (and only?) Captain Beefheart cover band, Big Eyed Beans from Venus, plays its first set in over two years. That group will be joined by Black Velvet—playing Velvet Underground covers—and Games for May, which will be the second Pink Floyd cover band to grace the Watt stage in a little over a month.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1

Stay inside. Drink some water, say a prayer of forgiveness (you freak; I can't believe you did that thing you did!), and start counting the days. After all, Halloween is only 364 days away.