Sticky Finger
Debut album by local band Ghostfinger points the way to a new kind of classic rock
By Steve Haruch
On their new album These Colors Run, the Murfreesboro band Ghostfinger allow a broad palette of colors to run around, together and sometimes amok. Take “Rock,” for example. The track begins with the band tunneling through a range of styles—tickling ivories, riffing metallic, starting and stopping. In the span of a minute-and-a-half, they manage to bring to mind The B-52’s, Vince Guaraldi, Dire Straits, Iron Maiden and Dick Dale, to name just a few. It’s almost as if Ghostfinger are leafing through the pages of rock history until they find something that really lives up to the song’s title. “Rock” is a microcosm not only of rock music, but of Ghostfinger’s agile genre-hopping, sly sense of humor and deep love of, well, rocking out.
On their new album These Colors Run, the Murfreesboro band Ghostfinger allow a broad palette of colors to run around, together and sometimes amok. Take “Rock,” for example. The track begins with the band tunneling through a range of styles—tickling ivories, riffing metallic, starting and stopping. In the span of a minute-and-a-half, they manage to bring to mind The B-52’s, Vince Guaraldi, Dire Straits, Iron Maiden and Dick Dale, to name just a few. It’s almost as if Ghostfinger are leafing through the pages of rock history until they find something that really lives up to the song’s title. “Rock” is a microcosm not only of rock music, but of Ghostfinger’s agile genre-hopping, sly sense of humor and deep love of, well, rocking out.
As the song’s chorus attests—“We’re gonna rock / We’re gonna fuck / We’re gonna rock rock rock rock fucking rock”—Ghostfinger can be ironic and silly, mocking rock ’n’ roll’s excesses and shortcomings even as they revel in them. When they play live, singer-guitarist Richie Kirkpatrick twists his face and body into one caricature after another, pushing the arts of squinting, knee-cocking and lip-pursing to absurd new extremes. There are times when it all seems like little more than a skit, and their act (which, besides Kirkpatrick, includes Matt Rowland on bass, keys and vocals, and Van Campbell on drums) tips precariously toward parody. But as Spinal Tap have shown, you really have to love rock ’n’ roll to make fun of it in such painstaking detail.
At their mostly straight-faced best, Ghostfinger can conjure the Rolling Stones of the early ’70s in a way that’s heavy and rousing. “Moon” is a boogie-rock romp worthy of Exile on Main Street, with all the swagger and drive of a classic single. The album’s most straightforward track, “Hello Movies,” rides a loping three-chord chorus along a Jaggered edge as Calexico pedal steeler Paul Niehaus glides across the music’s bounding textures. Ghostfinger probably could cash in on Stones nostalgia, but they’re too smart and mischievous for that.
At times, These Colors Run sounds like a less well-heeled Stephen Malkmus leading the Stones through The Decline of Western Civilization (parts 1 & 2). At others, it’s kind of like a geeky Mick Jagger guiding a punch-drunk Pavement through bluegrass and Southern rock, with tongue in cheek, but not stuck there. These Colors is a somewhat uneven effort, partly because it’s all over the map stylistically, but a handful of great tracks, buoyed by stellar musicianship, make for a memorable debut.Click here for Steve Haruch's audio commentary.
Recent Comments
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Re: The Melvins to Play Third Man Records May 30, Shuggie Otis to Play Exit/In Oct. 10
Good Morning Doyle, You asked so I'll explain. Last evening "snowman69" made the first comment…
- on May 18, 2013
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Re: The Melvins to Play Third Man Records May 30, Shuggie Otis to Play Exit/In Oct. 10
ahem. the above article says SHUGGIE FUCKIN' OTIS is coming to play Nashville. why are…
- on May 17, 2013
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Re: The Melvins to Play Third Man Records May 30, Shuggie Otis to Play Exit/In Oct. 10
PS: Thought I'd check out who is playing a the Station Inn myself and it…
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Re: The Melvins to Play Third Man Records May 30, Shuggie Otis to Play Exit/In Oct. 10
@snowman69, Margarita Festival this evening, May 17, from 6PM-9PM in the Gulch between Pine ST…
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Re: The Melvins to Play Third Man Records May 30, Shuggie Otis to Play Exit/In Oct. 10
Anything cool going on this weekend though? Seems bleak out there
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on May 17, 2013
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