Raleigh’s Gross Ghost is the braintrust of Mike Dillon and Tre Acklen. Formed in 2008, the band’s brand of layered, guitar-driven pop recalls the sunny sound of another local band, The Love Language. Signed to the Chapel Hill’s Grip Tapes label, the band issued a free download of their latest EP, Lip City, via Bandcamp.
“Gross Ghost is the product of two best friends with nothing to do and nowhere to go,” Dillon said. “All we want to do is live in a van, crash on your couch, melt your face off and drink all of your booze…. and totally change the world through the healing power of song. ”
Dillon describes how Gross Ghost was born via the Grip Tapes site.
Chapter 1: EBONY & IVORY
I used to have bands play at this house I lived at with some crust freaks a couple of years ago. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes garbage, these shows attracted randoms from all over. I first met Tre when his friends gave me their band’s demo at one of these parties and I checked it out. The production was incredible. I started hanging out with Tre and he soon became a fixture around our house shows, always stealing my booze and falling asleep in really awkward places/positions. He would usually wake up around dawn and kind of stumble around the kitchen of our house, lurking for food. I saw him doing this once and said to myself, “That guy looks dead. A real gross ghost. We should start a band together.”
Chapter 2: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
We started messing around with stoned jams in the basement and eventually he moved in. Later, we got evicted. Never date an arsonist. Tre and I ended up living out in the sticks, far away from our previous worlds. Our nights consisted of a tape machine and alcohol. It was cathartic, but chaos quickly turns to boredom if it happens all the time. The sense of trying to capture the fleeting moments of our minds and indiscretions from nights previous had been preserved. But the cabin fever had gotten to us and we went our own ways. We still passed demos to each other and the sounds began to mutate into something else.
Chapter 3: MENTAL RADIO
Lately, a series of comic tragedies mixed with a dash of lethargy has been threatening to knock us down. Life can try but the music keep us afloat. We are inspired by the highs and lows we see on the day to day. Our lives are how you survive when you’re waiting for bigger, better, stranger, more exciting things to happen. You have to find a nice place to go, wherever it is, to find a balance. Gross Ghost is our escape.
