Too often I fall victim to the classic “judging a book by its cover” and miss out on a great band simply because of their name (Foster the People, anyone?). A few years ago, I recall seeing “Ghostland Observatory” emblazoned seemingly everywhere I looked: magazines, music news, festival lineups. What the heck does it even mean? To this day, I have no freakin’ clue, but I’ve been making up for lost time by catching their concerts – a digital light show extravaganza – at every opportunity and preaching their greatness to anyone within earshot.
Surprisingly, Ghostland is just a duo of best buds from a place where it’s cool to be weird: Austin, Texas. Thomas Ross Turner mans the drums/keys/synthesizers, providing most of the signature Ghostland digital bleeps and blurps that the band is famous for. He frequently, or pretty much always, dons a cape, which I can’t help but think Charlie Day (from “It’s Always Sunny”) would love to wear as his Nightman character.
Frontman Aaron Behrens is an instantaneous party-starter. He’s usually rockin’ some Native American-inspired braids and dark shades (likely to help keep the lasers from blinding him) and he’s known to strap on a guitar for a few songs at each show. One thing you’ll quickly notice about Behrens when performing is the man does not stop moving ever – his energy and dance moves would give the late James Brown a run for his money. Their concerts contain the same atmosphere of pure and utter joy that you’d find at a typical Flaming Lips gig – a cozy place to be indeed.
The group was first conceived in 2003 and they’ve been notorious road warriors ever since. They eventually dropped their debut delete.delete.i.eat.meat two years after their inception on a label created by Turner, Trashy Moped Recordings. For a band just starting out, it’s impressive that Ghostland found their sound right away asdelete is ten tacks of pure pop-synth awesomeness – there is no filler to be found. “Silver City” sounds like it was concocted among the stars in space with Behren singing some all-too-appropriate lyrics -- “I think that I have found myself out on the floor / And I think that we have lost ourselves forever more” – because yeah, their tunes will inspire you to spend eternity on the dance floor.
Sad Sad City 3D from andrew giugno on Vimeo.
Wasting no time, Ghostland released their sophomore album, Paparazzi Lightning, just a year later in 2006. The album contains several strong tracks: “Move With Your Lover” will make you want to do just that; “Vibrate” has one catchiest song openings ever (“I said vibrate!”); while “Sad Sad City” is a pure Ghostland dance frenzy. Their third effort, Robotique Majestique once again dropped ten hard-hitting dance pop tracks. The low-end crunchy bass found on “Freeheart Lover” will crawl all over your skin in the best way imaginable, while “Club Soda” is the go-to track for cruisin’ the highway at midnight.
Last year’s Codename: Rondo brought forth one of the catchiest songs of their career: “Freeze.” The track opens with a piping synth beat that sounds like something out of an old NES game. The song’s title becomes apparent when Behrens mimics a police officer, saying in a faux police voice, “Freeze, it’s the police / Put your hands where I can see ‘em / Get down,” which is when the beat truly drops.
Without the push of a major label and little-to-no advertising, Ghostland has managed to appear on late night television and perform at damn near every festival that exists in the states. Like ‘em or not, their music will light a fire under your feet and force you to groove. Just look at the pic I took – you can’t even see the band, but you can most certainly see thousands of people having the time of their life with a glow stick of solidarity being held high among a sea of lasers. Do yourselves a favor: listen, see, and fall in love.
