Ghost
House

When I was younger and spent a large amount of time reading juvenile fiction from the public library, ghost houses held a prominent place in my psyche. A ghost house was a mysterious place where you never knew who lurked around the corner, and youth roamed unbridled by authority. I was jealous of the kids in books who had ghost houses to explore. I lived in a rural neighbourhood and the best we could do was play in the creek. Thankfully, Ghost House the band fulfills some of these long lost youthful desires.


Ghost House is a group of local kids who take their gang out to the abandoned backyard at the edge of Vancouver’s music scene.


The gang leader is Jesse Gander, who has been making music around town for the last 13 years and is currently a partner at Hive Studios, which pumps out a good percentage of Vancouver’s new indie music. Along with Gander, Ghost House is Al Boyle (Witness Protection Program), Steve Matheson (the Seams) and Katie Lapi (Cadeaux). From song to song, the gang is joined by the likes of Joel Tong (Joel and the Last of the Neighbours), Andy Dixon (Secret Mommy), Shannon Wood, Laura Lee Schultz and Marissa Johnson, who fall in and out of the band interchangeably, providing flair and surprise.


This local supergroup released their first album, Departures, in 2005 on Bloodstone Press. Produced at the Hive, combined Gander’s punk-influenced productions with freestyle roaming on the electronic ivories, skittering drums and unpredictable guitar hooks. It was critically well-received and the band quickly carved out a space for themselves in Vancouver’s smaller venues.


Now their first album has found a new home on Edmonton’s Reluctant Recordings, and the band has plans to record and release four EPs in a series titled These Are the Good Old Year. The first is already out with four new tracks and is titled These Are Ghost House. The EP sounds like an extension of Departures, as if the songs were originally meant for that album.


Should you collect all the EPs, you will be able to play the Official Ghost House Board Game by lining up the sides of the four releases. Each comes with a playing piece and if they’re all together you can “help the animals escape from the giant bear!” The game play looks fairly standard based on the first EP, but Lapi’s artwork is a charming pink and yellow mess.


These albums go to the places that your parents warned you not to, they frolic through torn screen doors to find rotted floorboards and stray cats. For those who wish to depart from their regularly scheduled walk home from school, this may be just the thing you need to give you that sense of childish adventure.