Punk rock poltergeists, an interview with the Spooks
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
- The Spooks
Over the last decade the ghostly garage punk band the Spooks have haunted Atlanta’s clubs, terrorizing audiences with spectral sounds, and often times dousing onlookers with gallons of blood and severed animal limbs.
The phantasmal five-piece materializes mostly around Halloween to rattle their chains and unleash an unholy cacophony of haunted house rock and roll, usually dressed in tattered white sheets. No one knows who they are or why their unquiet and spirits still linger on earth. Their connection to Atlanta bands the Black Lips, the Kiwis and Baby Dinosaurs vs. Extinction are not clear — aside from the Die Slaughterhaus Records logo that marks their debut LP, Death From beyond the Grave.
The album’s 3-D cover art seals a Pandora’s box of echo-heavy rock, disembodied moans and sinister cackles and Theremin squiggles that emanate from somewhere beyond the realm of the living. … and the songs, “Ceremonial Death March,” “California Boys” and “Now I’m Gonna Steal Your Soul” spell out the ghoulish M.O. that drives their beach blanket blood bath sound with horrific clarity.
To put it plainly, the Spooks are a band of evil spirits who roam the earth and posses the bodies of local musicians to play their songs. Rumors abound that they will materialize at the Star Bar on Halloween night to celebrate the release of Death From Beyond the Grave.
Despite warnings from all who have encountered these ghastly ghouls I sought them out. A few failed attempts to summon them on a Ouija board went by, but they made their presence known in a séance that gripped me with fear in the former New Street Gallery in Avondale. After a few ill-advised taunts the planchette darted violently from letter to letter, spelling the answers to my questions. Soon enough their earth-bound hosts materialized before me in a haze of dense smoke and reverb.
I am duty bound not to reveal the names of the bodies of the living whom they inhabit, out of fear of exorcism. But after some coaxing they agreed to an interview…
Can you tell me your names?
Spook1-2: No!
Spook3: Where we’re from there is no need for names.
Spook4: Bodies are temporal things anyway, they just come and go. A spirit is an eternal form.
Spook5: We didn’t write these songs anyway. We channeled them. Beethoven was decomposing and we stole his sheet music.
How did you die?
Spook1: In various attrocious ways.
