Ghostclubbing

The Ghost Club are:
David Mitchell – guitar, vocals
Jim Abbott – bass, drums on 1 & 10
Denise Roughan – drums, bass on 1 & 10

"When I was young, my father locked my brother’s electric guitar in the cupboard, claiming it was an evil toy, so like any enquiring mind would do, I would unlock the cupboard when the house was empty and pluck and strum this forbidden thing. I made all the "chords" by playing a bar across the strings with my thumb. No, things haven’t changed much since then."
David Mitchell

"Piercing eardrums, stabbing at blind eyes and splitting our heads"
Flying Nun’s initial reaction to the first album tapes received

For most dedicated New Zealand music fans, these fellows need no introduction, but for the uninitiated there is a brief outline below, followed by a rambling description of the new album ‘Ghostclubbing’, out on Flying Nun/FMR in early June this year.

David Mitchell has been melting down guitar amps since the 80’s in many seminal New Zealand bands from Plagal Grind to the Exploding Budgies, Goblin Mix and Chug to the 3Ds.

Denise Roughan is also no stranger to live audiences, serving us wonderments in Look Blue Go Purple and the 3Ds. Flying Nun newcomer Jim Abbott has been grounded in local NZ bands, joining the now-London based Ghost Club full-time.

The band first caught our attention when David and Denise recorded two quiet, acoustic songs in January 1996 that were released by Flying Nun as a 7" single (FN356) later that year under the moniker ‘The Ghost Club’. It was an acoustic and sombre step away from their full-time band the 3Ds and gave no indication of the ferocity to come. One of the initial tracks ‘The Crying Room’ was included on a Pavement magazine CD sampler and later a split 7" appeared with issue #6 of German magazine Hayfever in 1999, with a cover illustration by David, while their contribution ‘Cool Air’ took pride of place. The Ghost Club was slowly brewing and further documentation was obviously required.

With support from Creative NZ and excited encouragement from Flying Nun, the trio recorded this raucous debut album over two days during London’s summer last year. The tracking was completed in a suburban railway arch, scorched earth-style, with the tapes being mixed and mastered after the heat had died down. The exact premises of the recordings are still shrouded in secrecy, and that’s how we like it.

The band have played sporadic live shows in London, as well as a couple of stunning solo efforts by David Mitchell (playing Ghost Club tunes) at the 2000 Dunedin Sound Festival & in Auckland with The Clean.

And now, here’s a postcard from a treasure chest discovered over on the other side…

As the rats flee en masse from burning buildings, mad jesters and winged devils slaughter honest folk. The crocodile chef prepares a breakfast feast as construction workers boast of the previous evening’s conquests. Those same jesters lie in wait under railway arches, ready to butcher catatonic office workers.

Such is the shuddering art to come from David Mitchell’s ragged right hand. The insane world he conjures with ink and paper also exists in the knuckle-shredding guitar music found here. Ladies and gentlemen, are you afraid of the dark? If so, then Ghost Club’s "Ghostclubbing" album will not help you and it sure as hell won’t save your poor, doomed soul. For here is the sad tale of brooding spirits, vengeful demons and trampled dreams. Care to join us?

The first rumbling, rolling lines of ‘Punch (your brother)’ and ‘Cool Air’ call out to the salty days of the 3Ds like ghost lanterns in a storm. Tragically, no-one is manning the lighthouse to guide them into safe harbours, as these ship-songs are destined to smash themselves upon the rocks of a blackened breakwater, all foam and fury.

Slipping under the fizzing waves, we encounter the strange odyssey of ‘Unterwasser Fotos’ – a vision of doomed galley slaves, chained to their soulless work and mercifully short existences.

Tracks like ‘Diver X’ and ‘Precious Blood’ spill out of the stereo speakers and begin to writhe on the floor in obvious agony. This is the pulsing sound of a human heartbeat crying out for release – only to find itself gutted from an unfeeling steel knife/guitar attack.

Riotous tunes like ‘Break the Law’ deserve to be locked up – if only we could catch the damned things. Running from room to room flinging blood and whisky might entrap it’s sinewy melody, but the juggernaut rhythmic monster can walk through it’s own walls!

Heavenly apparitions speak of severed arteries, as the band rips into ‘Late Lamentable Fire’. Lazy thoughts drift into sharp concerns for the small children left behind in the bloody wake of a searingly demented guitar solo from David. Able bodied and bass-anchored, Jim secures the doors tightly and Denise begins to resolutely pummel on the totemic skin drum. Breathless, we launch into ‘Tote Oma’, which rewards us with treacherous locusts and no remorse. Mistaken identity is no excuse, as we pay the ultimate price.

Punch drunk and run into the solid brick wall of ‘Ghost Club Theme Song’. What legs you have left are required for running the mad gauntlet, as the instrumental machinations of the Ghost Club thread you into a maze of sound, all psyched and ready to slam you through the cold floor at a moment’s notice.

If what has gone before is the violent exclamation, then 9 minute closer, ‘Tiny Cuts’ is the point. Recorded as a free improv in the band’s rehearsal room, it reveals excellent proof of three musicians who are on the path, searching for those lost angels and demented gnomes that make this life a desperate blessing. Unbeknown to the band, the heavy walls are already dripping with their tales and the opened scars show no signs of healing.

I never believed in ghosts, not really. Now, I’ve joined the club.

Disclaimer:

Portions of this biography were provided under the influence of alcohol and in no way reflect the views of the recording artist or the recording company. All opinions remain the property of the author.