Haunted House

Haunted House on MYSPACE

Haunted House is a four or five piece band from Minneapolis inspired not only by Germs, Swell Maps and Can, but also by the lifestyle of the American suburbs. Started in 2002 in a house in South Minneapolis by keyboardist Mike Watton with the mission of restating Andrew WK as an Enya-inspired drunken blackout, the group has evolved greatly from that initial concept with the gradual edition of members. After moving into the Watton residence, multi-instrumentalist Jon Davis joined on bass. After moving from Kansas City, longtime collaborator Cole Claerhout became first the drummer and later the guitarist. After solo stints in the position, Adam Patterson and Karl Tabeest eventually became dual drummers. During that span, the band evolved from using an iPod and stand-up drums onstage to a more traditional set up. Today, the band straddles many musical planes, both in recording and live performance. The live show often earns comparisons to early punk acts like Germs, while simultaneously earning a "jam band" label from the same observers. The latest studio output shows a band that has a truly unique and forceful take on pop, without falling into the common trap of sounding self-concious while doing so. The lyrics might be the strangest aspect. They're a sort of abstract take on Leonard Cohen that instead of focusing on romantic visions of love and life takes a hallucinatory paranoid look at the beach, oceanside mansions and social anxiety, sung with an Ian Curtis-like penchant for being off key.