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Gross Ghost Wicked Game

Out of my four entries on this blog, this is the second about Gross Ghost and the third about a band from North Carolina. There is a damn fine music scene going on down there and Gross Ghost is at the forefront of it. The last time I wrote about Gross Ghost I was writing based on other blogs and tweets from the band. This time I just called Mike Dillon and Tre Acklin and got the word straight from the ghost’s mouth.

Mike and Tre are roommates in Raleigh, NC and have had Gross Ghost going in some form or the other since 2008. In the past they had toured somewhat frequently with a former lineup, but have recently been focused on recording songs and immediately getting them out for free.

The bands associated with this North Carolina triangle scene are an incestuous bunch, but not in the catch a felony kind of way. Matt and Tre have played in Old Bricks and Americans in France and are contemporaries and friends with Wild Wild Geese, Veelee, Spiderbags, Last Year’s Men, Love Language and the Dirty Little Heaters. These are bands that reader(s) of this blog will be familiar with in the near future. The record labels responsible for supporting these bands are Odessa, Grip Tapes, Churchkey and Merge. And of course, the record store at the epicenter of spreading the word of North Carolina music is Gravity Records. Matt and Eric at Gravity have mastered the art of Internet promotion and are the reason I know about these bands, and therefore the reason you are reading about them. So go give thanks by buying records from them or at least go over to their facebook and show them some love.

Gross Ghost recently put out Wicked Game their second EP on Grip Tapes and it’s available for free at the bottom of this post. Grooving bass lines have as much do with Wicked Game as the beach drenched guitars and the percussion has taken a psychadelic jazz foot stomping turn and the end product is thriving because of it. The full length LP due out this summer is going to contain some of the tracks of these two EP’s plus some new tunes.

The band is going to switch its focus from recording when the new LP is done and hit the road this summer. There is talk of a Maysville, KY gig and the band is definitely doing Hopscotch in September.

“We are coming to rock, we’re coming to hang out, we’re coming to drink your beer and we are coming for your couch,” Mike, I know one town that is more than ready.

Thanks to Jheri at Get off the Coast for giving me these to begin with