That Ghost – Young Fridays
This album is really, really basic and really, really good. Guitar, drums, bass from time to time, and some bloke singing. Ryan Schmale, who to all intents and purposes is the band has all sorts of self-releases to his name already and, at the grand old age of eighteen, this is his label debut. His first proper full release, I suppose you would call it.
Knowing that, you’d never expect the sounds that issue forth from your speakers on pressing play. This sounds like the work of a veteran indie band to me – you know, members mostly in their thirties, been growling away since listening to the low-fi indie of the early 90s US scene, that sort of thing. It’s part of that line between The Velvets, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Luna and that kind of thrum-based, basic indie rock. I wouldn’t put him quite at that level yet, obviously, but then it would be a bit harsh to compare an eighteen year old to the major giants of US indie.
A friend of mine is a drummer and refers to his instrument as ‘the pots and pans’, and in this particular case that is almost exactly what they sound like. Add the crackly, distorted guitar and echoey vocals and, well… eighteen, are you sure? There are times when things lag a little. After the terrific Top Shelf there comes a one-two of songs I am not particularly smitten by, and some kind of instrumental variation might be a little welcome here and there just to break things up a little, but in general I would call this an excellent debut. I’ll be interested to see how he develops.
That Ghost – Top Shelf
That Ghost – A Song About a Bird I Know
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I kinda prefer the second one. The first one leaves me a bit untouched.
That’s sort of what I meant when I suggested some instrumental variation – occasionally this can lack warmth. All round though, still a good album.
You know, C&B, I barely know the Replacements at all. Shameful I know, but there it is.
First it was the Jesus and Mary Chain, and now this!? For shame, sir, for shame. In all honesty, though, I’m not a huge Replacements fan myself, although Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased To Meet Me have some fine moments. I saw them live once, back in 1989 or so, and they truly sucked. They were nearing the end by then, though. Missed ‘em in their prime.
C&B we really should revoke his blogging permit, he has no business pretending to know music, does he?
I saw them in their prime and they were equally awful but we loved them anyway, just as we loved the Dead Kennedys (who were awesome every time) and the Smiths who honestly didn’t sound as good live as they did recorded (strike me dead, I’m ready for it). I blamed the venues, they were crap back then and some still are.
Paul Westerberg has done some great stuff solo.
I’ve said it on here before, but Things is one of my favourite ever songs.
Oh yeah! That Ghost. Liking it.
Folker (Paul Westerberg) you can/could get from Fopp for something like £2….and it’s pretty fucking good
Yeah, I was talking about this recently. I am all aggravated and sulky that Fopp is now HMV, but it’s still a good place for now, and the clientele are still the music fans, rather than just Robbie Williams Robots.
I really like these. Top Shelf is tough, muddy, and echoey, sort of like For Against without the rhetoric and idealism, whereas the bird song is fragile as a snowflake, and makes me think of some of the Replacements’ nicer ballads, like Here Comes a Regular or Skyway, not so much in sound, but in feel.