{"id":20722,"date":"2021-03-26T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T09:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20722"},"modified":"2021-03-24T09:05:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T13:05:37","slug":"cool-ghouls-make-fuller-use-of-the-studio-on-at-georges-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/26\/cool-ghouls-make-fuller-use-of-the-studio-on-at-georges-zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool Ghouls Make Fuller Use of the Studio on \u2018At George\u2019s Zoo\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launched in 2011, San Francisco band Cool Ghouls is celebrating its decade of rock and roll by releasing its fourth studio album, At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i>. The new record builds on the psychedelic and garage rock textures of earlier records, but it also represents a surefooted step forward. As one of its key members prepared to relocate to another part of the country, Cool Ghouls crafted two albums\u2019 worth of new material. The first, At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i>, finds the band bending its style in the direction of the Beatles\u2019 Abbey Road<\/i>.<\/p>\n

As is often the case for debut albums, 2012\u2019s Cool Ghouls<\/i> was in many ways a document of what the band sounded like live onstage. \u201cHow we get songs down is by playing them live before we record them,\u201d says guitarist Pat Thomas. \u201cThat’s kind of always been our process.\u201d The band used a similar approach for 2014\u2019s A Swirling Fire Burning through the Rye <\/i>and Animal Races<\/i><\/a> (2016). Cool Ghouls\u2019 other full-length albums, Live at Nice Price Vol. 1<\/i> (2015) and 2017\u2019s Gord\u2019s Horse<\/i> were recorded in front of audiences.<\/p>\n

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But for At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i>, the band decided to take a very different approach. For the first time in the band\u2019s career, the musicians have approached an album with the goal of exploring the capabilities of the studio. The result is an album that\u2019s more refined and sophisticated, while at the same time remaining true to the band\u2019s shaggy indie-psych-garage aesthetic. <\/p>\n

Rather than road-test the songs, Cool Ghouls developed most of At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i>\u2019s 15 tracks in the studio. \u201cThese songs felt pretty fresh and malleable while we were recording,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cWe would rehearse a batch of them in our practice studio a couple days before going in. We were winging it a little more than we had on our previous albums.\u201d <\/p>\n

Drummer Alex Fleshman agrees that the new approach bore creative fruit. \u201cIt was cool, and it was different,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it was just something we hadn’t really tried before.\u201d Experimentation was balanced with spontaneity, too. Fleshman cites \u201cFlying\u201d as a good example. \u201cRyan [Wong] showed it to us in the studio, and we recorded it 20 minutes later!\u201d <\/p>\n

Part of that freedom of approaches was borne of having the luxury of time. Previous Cool Ghouls albums were made by booking a run of several consecutive days in a studio. \u201cBut [for this album] we had an arrangement with our friend Robby [Joseph], who was recording it,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cHe was looking to get some more experience, so we were just going into his garage.\u201d <\/p>\n

That more relaxed approach allowed the band to tinker more with arrangements, and to explore the capabilities of the studio. But At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i> still features the sound that has earned the band a loyal following. The record displays a newfound \u201cwillingness to experiment with things that we aren\u2019t necessarily able to recreate live,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cWhen we were first starting, I think there was a conscious effort to try to make sure that all the songs were things that the four of us could do on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i> shows what Cool Ghouls can sound like with those self-imposed restrictions removed. In fact the core band \u2013 Thomas, Fleshman, Wong and Pat McDonald \u2013 is joined by four more musicians (on piano, sax, violin and trumpet), and the auxiliary players receive equal billing on the album sleeve. Combined with Thomas\u2019 Mellotron on several tracks, the extra musicians help give the album a more polished and nuanced character than previous outings.<\/p>\n

The new album expands the group\u2019s stylistic palette, but sometimes it\u2019s tough to discern how much of that is loving tribute and how much is an exercise in irony. \u201cIt\u2019s purposely somewhere in between,\u201d admits Thomas. \u201cSurfboard\u201d features sunshine-y Southern California harmonies that recall Jan and Dean, crossed with silly lyrics that conjure thoughts of the Turtles. \u201cRyan [Wong] is the one who wrote that tune; initially we just had those lyrics in there as a placeholder,\u201d Thomas explains. \u201cWe were amused by them, and something about them being funny matched the feeling of that riff.\u201d<\/p>\n

And \u201cSurfboard\u201d is the opening segment of a multi-song suite, a Side Two construction that\u2019s clearly inspired by the Beatles\u2019 studio 1969 swan song, Abbey Road<\/i>. \u201cThere was a poster of that album cover on the back wall of the garage,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cI was hoping that you might be able to see it in the background on the album cover, but it\u2019s too dark and faraway to see. But it\u2019s there.\u201d <\/p>\n

The suite seamlessly strings together \u201cSurfboard\u201d with two of Thomas\u2019 songs (\u201cFeel Like Getting High\u201d and \u201cLook in Your Mirror\u201d) and a Pat McDonald song, the melancholy \u201cI Was Wrong.\u201d And like Abbey Road<\/i>, the Cool Ghouls\u2019 masterful studio medley ends with a spare, vocal-and acoustic guitar tune, Wong\u2019s \u201cLiving Grateful,\u201d a song that could easily be mistaken for a lost Phil Ochs track.<\/p>\n

Fleshman says that the group was unafraid to try things they hadn\u2019t done before. \u201cThere was very much a \u2018What if we throw a piano on there?\u2019 mindset,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Land Song\u2019 has a bunch of violins and horns. We were ready to change, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially in a time when live shows aren\u2019t an option, making better use of what can be done in a recording studio makes good sense. Besides, as Fleshman puts it, \u201cWe can’t just make rock \u2018n\u2019 roll album after rock \u2018n\u2019 roll album that’s basically just the same rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

The burst of creativity that yielded At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i> also resulted in material for an additional album, though a release date hasn\u2019t been set. \u201cRyan was moving to Denver, and we knew that was coming,\u201d Fleshman explains. \u201cSo we felt like, \u2018Let\u2019s just record everything that we\u2019ve got!\u2019\u201d The band finished at least 26 songs. For those who enjoy At George\u2019s Zoo<\/i>, Cool Ghouls\u2019 as-yet-untitled fifth studio set will likely sustain that appeal. \u201cYou\u2019ll notice the kinship [between] these records for sure,\u201d Fleshman says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Launched in 2011, San Francisco band Cool Ghouls is celebrating its decade of rock and roll by releasing its fourth studio album, At George\u2019s Zoo. The new record builds on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,41,49,57,62],"tags":[2853],"class_list":["post-20722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-interview","category-new-release","category-psych","category-rawk","tag-cool-ghouls","cat-33-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20726,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20722\/revisions\/20726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}