Ghost Mountain - Siamese Sailboats

Ghost Moun­tain
Siamese Sail­boats
Self-​Released; 2009

There have been times in my past when I lament a bit of wasted youth. Sure, I taught myself how to play gui­tar, bass, and drums my sopho­more year of high school, but I never started bands with any of my friends like so many kids do in that stage of life. Hell, out­side of one very short-​lived attempt to start a goth-​pop power trio with two friends in col­lege, the only musi­cians I reg­u­larly prac­ticed with in my teens and early twen­ties were my three younger broth­ers. More­over, beside the poetry, short sto­ries, and essays that I wrote for com­pe­ti­tion pur­poses and/​or assign­ments for class, I don’t have the pro­to­typ­i­cal hoard of hor­rid, clichéd mate­r­ial that many writ­ers crafted in their for­ma­tive years. So, I’m in awe of the teenagers who man­age to focus all of their ado­les­cent energy into cre­at­ing any kind of art of any mea­sur­able worth.

Thus, I’m sim­ply stunned and aston­ished at the depth and qual­ity of music on Siamese Sail­boats, the debut release from Ghost Moun­tain. This teen duo out of Hous­ton, TX has put together a twelve-​song project that, on one hand, serves as an exquis­ite exam­ple of con­tem­po­rary blog­house music, but, on the other, is an amaz­ingly fresh col­lec­tion of tracks that exult in the joys, hurts, hopes, and pains of youth. Aspects of Wavves, Yacht, Peach­cake, and Of Mon­tréal can be eas­ily picked from this milieu of catchy, hooky, poppy fun, but it’s the nerdy, smart-​aleck sense of aware­ness that dri­ves things to heart for me.

From the out­set of “The Atomic Brain” to the con­clu­sion of “Clemen­tines,” there’s an organic rich­ness that man­ages to eke its way past the key­board lines, the noisy war­ring of cos and sin waves, and highly dance-​worthy break­beats. It could be the vocal deliv­ery rem­i­nis­cent of Beck’s early work or how it appears that Ghost Moun­tain bor­rowed some of Joy Electric’s ana­log syn­the­siz­ers to reduce the “elec­tronic” aspects of the group’s sound. But when “Squid Riot” and “Face” drop their huge grooves and “Good Heart” rings out with the ulti­mate teenage guy sen­ti­ment – “Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you’re attrac­tive” – you can’t help but be just slightly jeal­ous of how eas­ily this record incul­cates win­some smiles, know­ing smiles from grown-​ups when cer­tain youth­ful lyri­cal themes are addressed, and heaps of kinetic excitement.

In short, Siamese Sail­boats, regard­less of the fact that nary a gui­tar is used in its cre­ation, is a punk album. Because of this, it is my fer­vent wish that more teenagers (and more than a few adults) who are aching to play in a band would first set aside their angsty rock aspi­ra­tions and lis­ten to the music of Ghost Moun­tain. Maybe then can they learn how to truly chan­nel their emo­tions and grab hold of a sense of humor in order to pro­duce a proper piece of DIY magic. I only wish I could have had this record around to inspire my music-​making pas­sions when I was a wee lit­tle whippersnapper.