Artist The Scarring Party

Somewhere between an Edward Gorey frontispiece and a Henry Darger fever dream, The Scarring Party occupies a macabre musical niche all its own. Specializing in fidgety folk songs that seem to be directly beamed in from 1920s vaudeville, the group mixes music-hall aesthetics with a taste for the grotesque. Images of open graves and hapless dogboys abound, all set loose amidst a musical landscape littered with tubas, accordions, and cast iron bells. Beneath the doom and gloom, however, lies a wicked sense of humor courtesy of lead singer and songwriter Daniel Anthony Bullock. The Scarring Party recently released the terrific Losing Teeth, an album that adds a coat of gloss to the group’s unnerving sound.

Updated 10/07/2011