Seattle’s THE DARTS Light the Fuse on New Album With Advance Single “Midnight Creep,” a Fuzzy Garage Ripper
Seattle’s all-women garage-rock wrecking crew The Darts kick off their new album cycle with “Midnight Creep,” the first advance single from their upcoming LP Halloween Love Songs, out March 3 on Adrenalin Fix Music. The single drops Tuesday, January 13 and finds the band slipping deeper into the spooky, swagger-heavy garage-trash universe they’ve been flirting with since day one. If you’ve ever wished the Back From the Grave comps came with a dance craze, you’re already in the right neighborhood. The Darts have spent the last decade carving their name into the global underground with Farfisa-first garage chaos, sold-out shows across Europe, the UK, and North America, and multiple sold-out vinyl runs. They’re known for genuine, close-to-the-crowd performances and Nicole’s honest connection with the room, a band that brings people into the show and plays from real joy rather than polish. They’ve landed sought-after KEXP live sessions and hit major festivals like Punk Rock Bowling, Binic Folk and Blues, SJOCK Festival, and Bear Stone Festival, earning fans ranging from Dave Vanian to Stephen King to Jello Biafra. With Nicole Laurenne (vocals and keys), Rebecca Davidson (guitar), Lindsay Scarey (bass), and the returning Rikki Watson (drums), this lineup feels like the most dialed, dangerous, and joyfully unhinged version of the band yet.
“Midnight Creep” started as a surprise curveball when Lindsay brought Nicole a demo called “Phantom Creep.” Nicole was already quietly writing a Halloween-themed album and immediately heard a chance to chase something different: an honest-to-ghoul old-school monster dance, the kind that might’ve aired on a haunted Shindig episode taped in a basement full of fog machines and paper-mâché bats. She rebuilt the tune into a slinky, organ-driven earworm; Lindsay created a simple, go-go-friendly choreography; and suddenly The Darts had a Halloween banger that felt both brand-new and weirdly familiar.
They’ve been testing it on the road for months, from Switzerland to Cincinnati, and everywhere in between. The reaction has been instant every night. Whole rooms start doing the dance without needing to be shown. It’s instinctive, like the ghosts of old 45s are moving people around by the hips. To bottle that energy, they teamed up with Frogman director Anthony Cousins, who shot a gloriously campy video steeped in B-movie mood: basement gloom, creature-feature attitude, and the dance front and center for anyone ready to join the creep. It looks like the lost midnight-movie segment some long-gone TV station forgot to broadcast.
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As a first glimpse of Halloween Love Songs, “Midnight Creep” nails the album’s split personality. Side A is built for the golden-hour trick-or-treat crowd, ghoulish fun, jangling keys, kitsch with teeth. Side B is the after-midnight bonfire: darker, heavier, fuzzier. Recorded at Station House Studio in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning producer Mark Rains, the album mixes The Darts’ signature garage-punk snarl with vintage horror-pop swagger, landing somewhere between the feral swing of The Cramps, the surf-trash bite of The Trashwomen, and the modern fuzz of bands like Death Valley Girls or Dead Weather, all wired together with that unmistakable Darts voltage. “Midnight Creep” isn’t just the first chapter, it’s the spark. A resurrected retro dance craze. A late-night slither with claws out. A Halloween party starter that already feels like it’s been living under the floorboards for decades.
For press inquiries, interviews, and review copies, please reach out. -Chad
