Dirty Ghosts

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The 2012 Line-up

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While listening to the debut album from San Francis- co’s Dirty Ghosts, the finer aspects of their dirty met- al-blues roots is at-once difficult to ascertain, and somehow easy to imagine. For every bubbly vocal cadence perpetrated by vocalist Allyson Baker, some filthy riff comes up for air to anchor a surfacing edgi- ness. When one of Aesop Rock’s deftly articulated drum programming contributions blasts into being, the inherent groove found in the group’s funktastic milieu takes the wheel and steers a bouncy batch of highly danceable cuts away from the shoulder.

Looted from the still-warm corpse of SF’s Parchman Farm in 2006, Baker and bassist Carson Binks began as a duo bent on rawer sonic sensibilities—essen- tially a stripped-down version of their former group. But Binks’ 2011 ship-jump necessitated a new direc- tion for Baker, away from the blues-swathed avenues she’d been dabbling in, and into a newer chapter that included surmounting an aversion to singing. Helped along by Rock’s influence—it ought to be known, lest the continental collide seem strange, he’s Baker’s husband—the debut album, Metal Moon, proffers an urbanized pop-rock piñata, bursting with saccha- rine-sweet melodies, multi-dimensional beats and a wealth of sultry sonatas.

The tenured atmosphere of the album is no doubt in large debt to the five-year-long incubation period for Dirty Ghosts. Baker’s experimentation with eschewing aural attacks, and the blooming of new inspiration from exploratory ‘70s pop acts like The Police and XTC, burns in different degrees—from the metal-edged “19 in ‘71” to quasi-dub beater “Shout It In” to the jagged hip-hop hubris of “Steamboat to Concord.” Whichever form the tunes assume, their accessibility is undeniable, and has paved the way for appearances at SXSW 2011, as well as Portland, Oregon’s, MusicFest NW 2011, and several headlining shows throughout 2012 on the heels of their February 24th release on Last Gang Records.

RYAN PRADO