Nitecrawlers - "Demo" Stream

Kayla Haubenschild of Nitecrawlers

Nitecrawlers have been rocking basement shows, warehouse gigs, and skate park shindigs nonstop since summer started, but now that fall has rolled around the group figured it should finally treat its followers to some recordings. Halloween seemed to be a prime time for Kansas City's creepy-crawling-est punk band to drop a demo.

Throughout the demo's six songs, vocalist Kayla Haubenschild's fears and anxieties all manifest themselves as slime, boogeymen, and several other forms of paranormal matter. Suppressed memories arise as "Ghosts" and feelings of self-deprecation make up Haubenschild's "Demons." The old saying goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," so perhaps that explains her ghoulish on-stage get-ups.

As Haubenschild reckons with all this, her band, made up of members of Killakee Kat and Anti-Seed, is busy constructing reverb-drenched rock music indebted to a number of different sounds. The base of most of the songs sits in classic seventies punk rock, but the band also borrows bits and pieces of garage and glam rock from the same era. Several riffs on the demo can likely be traced back to early tunes by The Ramones, but the flare attached to them by guitarist Bennett Weaver often contain traces of Iggy Pop/David Bowie collaborations.

Stream "Demo" below.