With a quirky country sounding name gHosTcOw is a rock band from Tucson Arizona that grabs you with music that features rave-ups, eerie charms, heavy Bo-Diddly drums and bass, organ-drenched blazers with jangly psychedelic guitars.

12 MP3 Songs in this album (39:40) !
Related styles: ROCK: Garage Rock, POP: Garage Pop

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Erotic nighttime drives in the desert, border crossings, tales from southwestern streets are just a few of the themes addressed in gHosTcOwâs debut CD âVistasâ. gHosTcOw has been developing their sound and playing live around Tucson for three years and their coming-out CD has just been released. âWeâre really proud and excited of the way the CD soundsâ, David Hall, lead singer-songwriter and guitarist, said. âNone of us had done any serious recording before and we were a bit concerned we were going to dump a lot of money into something that was ordinary. But what weâve produced has us really eager to share it.â
This is the first review of our CD âVistasâ from the Tucson Weekly by the music editor, Stephan Siegel (musiced@tucsonweekly.com):
The locals of gHosTcOw (their choice in caps, not mine) are well aware that their name would lead one to believe that theyâre a country band-or at least a desert rock one. To wit, an excerpt from the bandâs one-sheet: âWeâre a band that has a quirky, country-music sounding name and a bit off-center approach to our songs, but weâre really just a rock band.â David Hall (singer, songwriter, guitarist) says. âI remember the first time we played with (local legend) Al Perry at Plush (Tucsonâs premier rock-club): after our set Al comes up to me and said, âWow, you guys are a rock band!â
As the bandâs debut CD, Vistas (Surface of the Sun Records) demonstrates, gHosTcOw are, indeed, a rock band, one influenced by â60s rock particularly of the garage and psychedelic varieties. Check out for example, âNot about Meâ, a vintage organ-drenched blazer that recalls the â80s Paisley underground bands of Los Angeles, particularly the Dream Syndicate. âNothing Happensâ, which opens the album, is a rave-up steeped in â60s-era tropes like Farfisa organ, surf-style background vocals, jangly guitar and handclaps, and includes one of the best single-line summaries of Tucson ever: âWhere muddled dreams are driven by the heat into space.â
Whether itâs the work of the band or of Jim Waters-who engineered, co-produced, and co-mixed the album-I donât know, but there are little flourishes here and there that save certain songs from being also-rans. Case in point is âReleaseâ, which, at 4 ½ minutes, is the longest song on Vistas and may have gotten lost among some of the other tunes if it werenât for the vibraphone that sucks you into paying closer attention. Once your tuned in, thought, itâs difficult to resist itâs eerie charms, which are contrasted with cheerful backing âdoot-dooâs. Likewise âSmileyâ grabs you with its Bo Diddley beat and blues harp, and some almost-jazzy piano-playing draws you into the Dave Prival-penned âRingtoneâ and the quirky âWe Got Somethingâ. Judging from Vistas, gHosTcOw have got something, indeed.
Well, that was nice, Thanks Stephan!
Specifically gHosTcOw is a desert-garage rock band with a twist, âI like the idea of writing songs that are snappy with some depth.â Hall says. Hall who writes and sings most of the bands songs does share the songwriting and singing duties with Dave Prival (Keyboards, vocals, harmonica). âFor this CD I think weâve concentrated on showcasing our songs that have more of a Tucson/regional emphasisâ Prival says. âWhen I came to Tucson over twelve years ago the first thing I noticed was the strong music scene here and Iâve always wanted to contribute.â
Engineered, co-mixed and co-produced by Jim Waters (Lucinda Williams, Calexico, Year Long Disaster, Sonic Youth, R.L. Burnside) âDuring our mixing sessions Jim Waters would keep saying how we sounded like a band with our own soundâ Hall said. âJim was very enthusiastic about this project and he recorded us with such passion weâre convinced that this came through in the recordingâ.
gHosTcOw was formed in 2005 by David Hall from the ashes of a failed PhD project. Looking around for a creative outlet an old band-mate from the â80s prodded David to pick up his guitar and make music again: gHosTcOw was born. The name of the band was inspired by a remark David overheard â70s movie star Shelly Duval made regarding Tucson while in a Palm Springs Dennys (âTucson, yeah Iâve been there, nothing but vacant lots and ghost cowsâ). âI used this as the bandsâ name because I wanted something that related to Tucson in some way but that was basically pretty meaningless, unless someone wanted to see meaning in a band nameâ Hall says. Hall and bassist Bronwen Heilman were already playing together with a drummer when Prival started playing with them in late 2004. Mark McLemore (drums) joined the band in 2007. âTogether I think weâre the perfect match for creating our soundâ Hall says. âWe listen to the song and try our best to make it come alive. If it doesnât come alive for us we dump that song and move on to developing the next new oneâ.