Gein And The Graverobbers – Songs In The Key of Evil – Review

Gein And The Graverobbers

Songs In The Key of Evil
by Craig Regala

One of the great things about The Cramps is they poked people with the spooky side of antebellum Southern Gothic goo. The soul-on-fire creepy death urge that bubbled up outta the Louisiana Delta and Blue Ridge mountains and hit Victrola’s circa ’48-’58 was prime fuel for The Cramps to ingest, along with horror movies and all sortsa hoo-doo. This cracked open the cellar door enough for all sortsa cartoon/nightmare/living dead units to crawl up and grab your ankle as you scurry past That Very Door!

Gein And The Grave Robbers are such ankle-grabbers. Twangy guitars shot through with reverb ride that ever-pulsing skeletonal surf beat as one guitar gobbles Crampsoid maggots whist the other pokes around the weirdly heart-tugging instrumental stuff the Brit genius Joe Meek strained through The Tornado’s when your dad was in first grade. Much of this stuff has been the province of the Detroit-area hearse jockies The Ruiners, The Gore Gore Girls, and that band with the singer who looks EXACTLY like uncle Fester. My only gripe is that they don’t have a theramin. Nothin’ spooks it up like the weirdest of gadgets. Sweet Iron Maiden cover, too.
(PO Box 2517 Acton, MA 01720)