GHOST PAL

Wellllll

we are targets of cover version snow

All glory to our homie Gabe Wax who has done the original a strange woozy justice indeed

here’s the original which we cut back in our halcyon days as teenaged Hysterics (all glory to comic mastermind Griffin Newman for the video)

-oliver

full disclosure: once again, i produced this

but we haven’t shared it with you through here yet and we like it a lot!

also Ezra Miller who occupied the drum throne for the first batch of Ghost Pal gigs and is in the fold FOR LIFE, whether he likes it or not, is the drummer of this band and sings one of his haunting originals “Sanskrit”

the band in general is superb. this is a stopgap EP containing essentially the cast-offs from the epic sessions we held in January. The full length LP is apparently dropping in November.

Give it a listen! You won’t regret it

-oliver

Having learned of the reclusive genius’ predicament (the man was the Mozart of the 20th century and history will vindicate that claim), Ghost Pal has been in an absolute tizzy trying to figure out what we can do for him. We may plan a benefit concert of some kind. Watch this space.

In the mean time, here is Sly and the Family Stone as represented in 5 stages

-oliver

so

i talked about this in some other places but not here yet. last month ghost pal and the studio at mama coco’s funky kitchen both took some hard knocks when the studio got flooded in torrential rains, knocking out a bunch of equipment. we hired a flood restoration crew to help us sort out the mess, and while they were here my laptop and external hard drive both somehow disappeared, and with them went all the work we had done so far on the Ghost Pal EP ‘Nathan Jones is Dead.’ the EP is a concept-album/song-suite about dying. it ends with the skeleton dance. 

 and that sucked!!

so we were down our computer and with it our recording capabilities, and we had to start from scratch. we set up this kickstarter so we could get any help from our friends in replacing our equipment and ultimately making the most kick-ass record we possibly can (oh friends with a little bit of luck this is gonna be a special one)

here it is! if you enjoy what we do, please help us. we have 25 days left to reach our goal, which requires $840 more. if we don’t reach our goal, we don’t get anything!

-oliver

We played a super keen show with our friends Flagland, Slothrust, Two States and the Toothaches. Here’s the majority of what we did:

sad day. she was probably the best R&B singer we had, and a great songwriter to boot. wish she could have kicked those addictions. what a waste.

Life Size Maps is a fuzzy, gauzy, hazy, freaked out orchestral punk trio we’ve known for quite some time and who are really very good.

Live they’re a frenetically dynamic and invigorating act

On record, they’re industrial, strange, but never losing that exhilarating drive

Go support them cause they’re good!

Here’s this, here ‘tis

Features a brand new instrument, invented by our friend Caleb Townsend and played by Shayne Lebron. It’s called a Skello.

We’ll post a picture of it in a second.

For now, here’s the new brand spankin’ Satanic R&B joint we just churned

Oh Donovan you fruity bastard!
Why art thou a pop savant genius?

an acquaintance going on friend o’ mine called Andre Baum sent me this, his work

i like it a lot!!

it’s an interesting mixture of uplifting western pop swing with heavy Asian influences…chanting (in Hindi?), weird jew’s harpy electronic textures..overall I’m really impressed, it’s like a modern, less cynical Frank Zappa

Boy those Beach Boys sure were some pretty incorrigible japesters! 

on a weirdly similar tip to the last Byrds video (always threatening to veer into raga-rock!):
John Coltrane Quartet was on its last legs in the time of this video. the serene meditative bliss-space they’d been exploring the year before had closed like a window and there was serious agitation and squalls creeping into the music, absorbing the free-jazz influence that was all around. the Quartet was one of the best jazz units of all time. Elvin Jones was potentially the MOST ecstatically swinging drummer ever recorded, and McCoy Tyner was positively brutal on the piano syncopations. And then above it all flies Coltrane, getting into a more imitative sound than he’d explored, often times in this period his saxophone has the disturbing timbre of a distant, screaming woman
soon the Quartet would fold and Coltrane would continue exploring the avant with ever expanding ensembles

yowza zoosh bang

“High Violet” just keeps growing on me

Too much

getting into this shit “In Search of the Lost Chord” is a great LP!

Dr. Skinnybones, AKA Jake Williams, erstwhile in-and-outter of the Ghost Pal fold, has finally resumed recording after about a year’s inactivity/gestation.

I’ve been curious and excited for a while about where Jakey’s gonna go/what he’s gonna do.

this rules.

it should surprise no one that we find much to love about this

possibly titled in reference to the recent spate of artists choosing bandcamp as their dumping platform, the new collection of demos from Shapes leader Fanelli Fanelli (with production from Newport Reds aka his bandmate Mark Fletcher) are raw, claustrophobic and nakedly emotional in a way that is new for Shapes, indeed a thrilling direction for them.

Yo I am a very big fan of what Burke Williams AKA Peoples is doing right now.

more masturbatory clips shot at home

i’m looking at the camera the whole time cause the lyrics are on the computer screen ,not cause i’m a creep…

how cool can ya get?

Courtesy of wild child Wolfe Margolies, more funereal and yet sexy music.

This kid has so much fuckin future. If he can just hold his life together he will be a music star.

From the bottom of all our Ghost Pal hearts, rest in peace Gil Scott Heron, pained poet of urban blight, victim of his own crushing wisdom. May he finally be in peace now in a place of equality justice and nopain. 

More reliably deranged fuzzed out squalor courtesy of Mark Fletcher, also of our homies Shapes

lovely ambient swells

got these for my birthday

(woman not included)

my favorite pair of headphones. on my 3rd pair since they are freaking fragile but damn is that warm ass clarity worth all the fuss!

This movie was amazingly bad