Music Review: Dead Ghosts, Can’t Get No

By Less Lee Moore

If you think Dead Ghosts sounds like a Goth band name, you’d be right, but you’d be dead wrong about their sound. This is old school, straight-up party music. The only thing better than listening to this album at a party (nighttime, outside, backyard, torches to ward off mosquitoes) would be having the band actually play live at your party.

In other words, you have to dance to this music. There is no other way.

This isn’t sitting alone in your bedroom, poring over the lyric sheet music; if you want clearly enunciated lyrics, Can’t Get No is not for you. However, as befits their sound, the lyrics on Can’t Get No are all about the ennui of youth: love, drugs, booze, and heartbreak. Who could resist lines like “I wanna hold you/Tonight instead of the phone”? Not me.

There are fuzzy, feedbacked vocals and guitars, plus tambourines and organs (think Hammond, not Bach). There’s even some awesome honky tonk piano in “You Don’t Belong” and “B.A.D.”

Each song boasts a terrific chorus. The one in “I Want You Back” is just the title of the song, but it’s so good it doesn’t need any other lyrics. Although every song is great, the title track, “On Your Own,” and the T.Rexy “Hangin’ in the Alley” are definite standouts.

Dead Ghosts also acknowledges their influences and peers. “Roky Said” references a couple 13th Floor Elevators songs, plus it’s got a wicked two-part chorus, reverbed guitar, and an insanely memorable guitar melody. The instrumental “Tea Swamp Rumble” pays homage to Link Wray’s “Rumble” as well as fellow Vancouverites Nü Sensae’s own tribute to the city’s Tea Swamp Park.

Can’t Get No is an album full of bona fide summertime jams. It’s only a half-hour long, so put this one on repeat.

Can’t Get No was released by Burger Records on May 14 and is available to purchase as a download from the Dead Ghosts Bandcamp page or on vinyl from Burger Records (the cassette version is sold out). Be sure to like the band’s Facebook page for updates.