Ghosty
_full.jpg)
From their emergence as Kansas University dorm heroes to recording with the Flaming Lips, the band Ghosty has been at the cusp of Midwestern indie rock for years with their expert, eloquent avant-pop.
Their new record "Answers" showcases a band devoted to songcraft, from songwriter Andrew Connor's poison-tipped narratives to the melodic interplays and textural flourishes of bassist Mike Nolte, keyboardist David Wetzel, guitarist Jake Blanton, and drummer Josh Adams. "Jake + Josh = Jazz" is a formula Connor gives to explain the many of the mercurial twists and turns of songs like "You Are A Big Screen" with it's stormy build-ups and placid verses and "Like A Bad Lie", all polished counterpoints crashing together like cymbals. It was for their "virtuosity" that Seth Sherwood of the New York Times gave Ghosty a shout-out and that virtuosity is everywhere on "Answers", in form and function, in every gleaming hook.
After making their nationally-distributed debut in 2005 with "Grow Up
or Sleep In" on Future Farmer Records, Ghosty has spent the last few years getting out of Kansas, touring the country, learning the industry, building a library of songs.
"Answers" marks their return to the region and to a regional label, signing on as the flagship band on celebrity disc-jockey Robert Moore's new imprint, Oxblood. That transition from "Growing Up" to finding "Answers" is the central theme of Connor's lyrics as he takes head-on the barrage of working-world prescriptions that greet our post-collegiate lives. "I'm learning it the hardest way/ It's no use to trust anyone" he sings on "You Are A Big Screen", the bow bending back. Every hypocricy is a bull's eye, from the ideal-flaunting co-ed on "Junior Grows Up" to the self-hating consumer on "A Good Customer." "I Won't Be Stopped", Connor concludes to close the album, staring down the corruption of adult life with a smirk. "You could always knock me to the ground/ But I won't be scared."
Ghosty's "Answers" was recorded in Norman, OK with Trent Bell (Flaming Lips, Starlight Mints) and Kansas City, KS with Paul Malinowski (Shiner, Be/Non). It was mastered by Roger Seibel (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake).
