Multi-act concert will raise funds for TU

Ghost dancing

Ghosts

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
3/30/2007

Multi-act concert will raise funds for TU charitable groups

Mondo bizarro Tulsa rock act Ghosts generates a sound that makes you feel the way you feel after too many Saturday morning cartoons and four bowls of Lucky Charms. Make that five. Make that while floating in space.

The trio will play the Lend a Hand benefit for Tulsa University's Habitat for Humanity project and the university's RESULTS chapter. Joining Friday's show at the Hive will be the socially conscious reggae group Citizen Mundi as well as Stevedore, Arlis Moon & the Stars and singer/guitarist Jacob Ide.

Just how weirdly entertaining is Ghosts? The group has been known to play gigs dressed in white coveralls and wearing masks. Garrett Weindorf and Matt Miner pound away at keyboards while Josh Grogan drums, churning out a maelstrom of noise, shrieks, blips and swooshes with song titles such as "Han Solo Bass Solo" and "Sea Organ."

Ask Weindorf about his influences, and you get an odd list (although he might be putting you on a bit).

"Abraham Lincoln, Jonas Salk, Rick Wells (a KOTV reporter), Yngwie Malmsteen, Rick Wells -- physically, spiritually, sensually. My parents. My dog. Jesus. Musically,

yeah, we like ancient mysteries, time, space. We like Pink Floyd. We really like the Flaming Lips."

The band started in 2002, when Weindorf and Miner started making music simply to amuse themselves. The duo began recording about an album a week and started leaving random copies with odd liner notes in unsuspecting mailboxes as well as with their friends. They even dropped off some of their recordings at Steve Ripley's now-defunct Church Studio.

"That Steve Ripley guy at the Church Studio -- I saw him once and he knew about (our band) because wed been dropping (copies of our recordings) off," said Weindorf, who always seems a half second away from a giggle.

"Well, you were wildly drunk weren't you?" Miner asked.

"I was-- just out of it-- wandering around at the Spot Awards," Weindorf said. "I weaseled my way into the back stage and Steve Ripley was back there tuning up, trying to get ready for his -- it was a couple of years ago. He had some, like, special tribute thing you know, this real touching thing. Yeah, it was nice. And I was back there, (expletive) faced and, you know, bothering him about it."

The Ghosts sometimes wear their disguises when they first walk into a gig. (You might see them dressing up in an alley behind a local bar.) They play a show replete with several fog machines and lights. They'll leave, return in their normal clothes for a few drinks and no one will recognize them, said Weindorf, who works at KOTV, channel 6.

Habitat for Humanity recruits volunteers to help build homes for poor families. RESULTS is a nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization, committed to ending hunger and the worst aspects of poverty.The local RESULTS group is raising funds to start a local "microlending" bank that will grant small loans to low-income people, according to a press release about the event.

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LEND A HAND: ROCK FOR RESULTS

What:
a benefit concert featuring Stevedore, Citizen Mundi, Ghosts, Arlis Moon & the Stars and Jacob Ide

When:
7 p.m. Friday

Where:
The Hive, 216 N. Elgin Ave.

Admission:
$4 for University of Tulsa students, $7 everyone else.

By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer