It all started when Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone’s brother, invited Palmyra Delran and The Doppel Gang to play one of the annual parties held in Joey’s honour. They could have gone for the Ramones classics, but instead they dug into Don’t Worry About Me (2002), Joey’s posthumous album, and picked Spirit in My House. Years later, Wicked Cool Records found the perfect excuse to release it: Halloween. It makes sense. Delran, founder of The Friggs and a member of The Coolies, draws on the same garage and bubblegum rock ’n’ roll that fuelled the Ramones.
They don’t feel the need to mess with the original. The riff, the structure and that hook you can’t get out of your head are all still there, but run through the band’s trademark trash-pop filter. The guitars have a rawer garage-rock edge, everything gets grittier and rowdier, and where Joey had his deep, nasal voice, Palmyra brings plenty of attitude and a playful streak. They’ve also thrown in ghostly shrieks and cheesy horror movie effects, making for an even shorter, more mischievous take on Joey’s original.
The lyrics are pure absurdity and dark humour. Ghosts sneak into your house and demons get inside your head, but all this domestic paranoia makes you smile rather than scream. B-movie horror with its tongue firmly in its cheek.
It’s haunted rock ’n’ roll that’s over before you’ve had time to get scared. Time to press play again.
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