Ghostfinger at Star Bar tonight (ATL)

Disclaimer: This is a revised/updated version of a C&T post from Feb. 19 of this year.

Tonight (Weds., May 31), Ghostfinger is at Star Bar in Atlanta. I was turned onto them about three months ago by the fine folks at the wonderful Grand Palace Records complex in Murfreesboro, TN. Grand Palace is a great space with a record store, recording studios, a live room, and a screen printing shop all in-house. While I was there, I asked about M'boro artists of note. It went something like this:

Rich: What's local and kicks ass?
Clerk 1: Ghostfinger!
Clerk 2: Ghostfinger!
Random customer: Yeah, Ghostfinger!
Rich: Well, alrighty then. I'll get that.

So, I bought Ghostfinger's 2005 release, These Colors Run, on Set International Records. Then I listened to it on the way home to Atlanta. Several times.

Ghostfinger's sound is difficult to succinctly define. They can sound like thrash-loving punks one moment and like descendents of Little Feat in the next. There's surf guitar, pedal steel, organ solos, NASA chatter, and multiple songs about the joy of rocking the fuck out. Richie Kirkpatrick's vocal is reminiscent of classic Stones fused with Stephen Malkmus, although the music is derivative of neither. To further confuse matters, The Nashville Scene called Kirkpatrick the city's "best reincarnation of Prince" in a recent piece. Basically, this is a really fun record by a trio of lads clearly having a great time and not taking themselves too seriously. A couple tracks (with some NSFW lyrics [the f-bomb], by the way):

Ghostfinger - Shine a Light
Ghostfinger - Rock

More songs are available on their MySpace page. If you're local and you dig these guys, come check them out at Star Bar tonight in Atlanta. It promises to be a hell of a show.

These Colors Run is available from Amazon.

(ed. note - isn't that publicity photo awesome?)