Dryvetyme Onlyne

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 Montreal 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.