Weedghost

Published January 24, 2008

Take the Arch Villians, remove the drummer, and you have the grotesquely gloomy and ambient sound of Weedghost.

Band members Kris Poland and Andrew Lampela play bass guitars, creating a droning, dark sound. This type of music falls under the ambient/doom metal category, with no vocals and only instruments with a low bass sound. Some especially experimental bands of this genre implement other odd items on their albums including chainsaws and jackhammers.

Lampela first met Poland when he played in the band Collapse. The two played in many bands together before Weedghost, including Kid Panda Hands, another ambient noise band.

But since 2002 they have both enjoyed the sound and creativity of Weedghost, with its one-take recordings and a heavy use of distortion pedals.

“When we were both in the Arch Villians, we always got to the practice space before our drummer, and after a while of making noise on our basses we just thought we should do it,” Poland said.

And so Weedghost was born. To release their self-titled first album, Weedghost signed on to Disjointed Records, run by their friend and Lampela’s ex-band mate, Mike Makosky.

The band customizes each album by painting on every cover themselves, making every copy unique.

After the album dropped, Poland moved to Dayton for work, and so the band’s relationship has become a long distance one, as Lampela still lives and works here in Athens at Haffa’s Records.

“Right now we are working on a double disc where one will represent West and one will be East, since I’m in western Ohio and he is eastern,” Poland said.

Weedghost plays the last Sunday of every month at Arts/West on State Street, but this weekend their monthly show is being preceded by music performances at Aquabear Legion’s 2nd Annual Pancake Breakfast.

“We’re all going to need a few drinks after all that music,” Lampela said.