Ghost Tour

The history of Atlanta indie-rock trio Ghost Tour begins in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the late ’90s when singer/guitarist Craig Gates immersed himself in the world of home recordings. It was a time of beaconing hopes and haunting fears for Gates, and in the wake of lo-fi luminaries like Sebadoh and Guided By Voices, locking himself in his bedroom with a four-track came naturally. Those sessions resulted in The Bent and the Broken, a self-released debut carved out by sparse and lovelorn strum, fuzz and moan.

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When Gates moved to Atlanta in 2004, Ghost Tour was dormant. It wasn’t until almost a decade after first reveling in self-indulgence that the project found new life. Joined by ex-Tinker Clay frontman John Naismith (bass), and Greg Stevens from the Close (drums), the group has adopted a more skilled approach to songwriting. “I’ve written years worth of silly songs about girls,” Gates says. “I’m trying to take a more writerly approach to the lyrics in both style and content.”

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Harnessing the slow-burning pace of Bruce Springsteen circa Nebraska, with rock chops that recall everyone from the Minutemen to Superchunk, Ghost Tour has become much livelier than its original incarnation. The emphasis remains on the art of the song. “The lowest common denominator for live music is rock, and if a band is slow and terrible, they are much worse than if they’re fast and terrible,” Naismith says. “We’re getting better at keeping the midtempo stuff midtempo and working it out, which is much harder than rocking out all the time. But we’re still a rockin’ band.”

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Ghost Tour plays the Drunken Unicorn with Old Haunts, God’s America and Bathtub Gin on Sun., May 21. $5. 8 p.m. 736 Ponce de Leon Place. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.