Photo by C. Lofkrantz
This may be a bold admission from a born-and-bred Texas boy, but I love Canada. From Whitehorse to Halifax, it’s on my (very) short-list of favorite countries. Maybe it’s because I was reared in a very fruitful era of Canadian comedians (Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, The Kids in the Hall, need I say more?). But the more likely reason is they make some pretty outstanding rock ‘n’ roll up there. Recent loves’ve included Toronto rockers Zeus, and especially B.C.’s Japandroids.
Now you can add Vancouver garage-punks Dead Ghosts to the mix. If you liked the lo-fi garage wail of The Black Lips or King Khan, then they’ll be right up your alley. The four-piece have a new record coming out on April 30 called Can’t Get No on the very cool punk/garage label Burger Records. MTVHive (a surprisingly good resource for finding cool new music–but definitely not as good as KUTX’s song of the day, of course) recently featured the first single from the album.
And that brings us to today’s song of the day. The title of the song featured was inspired by none other than psych-rock hero Roky Erickson. “Roky Said” has a great wobbly feel aided by a lazy, yet strong, backbeat that just urges you to sway. The lead guitar dances nimbly on a repeating line. The vocals are buried underneath layers of garage-y scuzz, but if you kept reading after I mentioned The Black Lips up there, then you probably saw that coming. There’s a nice little electric organ stab in there about halfway in that really gives the song a good kick. If you needed yet another reason to love Canada (and really, why would you when there’s so many already?), then Dead Ghosts is your band.
