Saturday, June 8, 2024

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger - Animals


Here’s a nice psychedelic freak show from GOASTT, the band otherwise known as The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, otherwise known as Sean Lennon, who is otherwise known as John Lennon’s son. Sean’s girlfriend, actress/model Charlotte Kemp Muhl, is also in the band and they truly seem to have some bewitching musical chemistry with their heady lyrics flying over the busted drums, junkyard percussion, and fuzzy bass. An ode to the alternative rock and roll swagger Lennon Sr. helped refine during his “I Am The Walrus” period—perhaps pushing the boundaries a little more, at least with this wild music vid. The psychedelic video for the single “Animals” sets out to spoof the Source Family and all things wacky and occult. Wait for the UFOs ’round the 4:00 mark, and be sure to catch Sean and Charlotte on their current tour.  From: https://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/2014/09/needle-drop-ghost-saber-tooth-tiger-animals/

We'd left them sitting side by side on their four-poster bed, a young, urban and decidedly hype couple, straight out of a fashion shoot for a trendy magazine or a Wes Anderson film. We've also known since Friendly Fire that Sean Lennon was an undeniably gifted musician and composer who now wisely prefers the anonymity of a band (with his girlfriend, model Charlotte Kemp Muhl) in order to escape an overwhelming heredity. His self-proclaimed eclecticism - from the soundtrack of an arty film to his participation in Mom's Plastic Ono Band via a few stints with The Flaming Lips - tended to muddy the waters. But while his last album, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, with its deliciously acoustic tones, was fondly remembered, no one expected him - or them, we should say - to make an album on the level of this totally psychedelic Midnight Sun, which is likely to shake many an audience. "Charlotte had only just heard 'Strawberry Fields Forever' when I met her," he once said of Kemp. It's reasonable to assume that she's had a refresher course or two since then, even if Midnight Sun is in no way, if not subconsciously, a Revolver/Pepper's pastiche with which the term "psychedelic", given Lennon's family tree, might be associated.
While the opening track, "Too Deep", may bring to mind some of the neo-planing rock of the late Oasis, it's the young guard (Temples, Tame Impala etc.) who are to blame. From "Xanadu" onwards, and especially the impressive "Animals", the case takes a completely different turn: The GOASTT's ambitious, unbridled compositions, with their often complex harmonies and structures, clearly rival the great pop goldsmiths of their time ("Last Call", "Poor Paul Getty"), as confirmed at the end of this kaleidoscope-like sonic trip by the almost seven-minute grandiose "Moth to A Flame", the real bravura piece of the record. Admittedly, here and there we'll find reminiscences of his illustrious father's first band (here, an upside-down guitar loop, there a pinch of slide, the vocal grain, especially troubling in the chorus parts). But above all, it's Sean's (and his partner's) artistic dimension that reveals every note of this strangely fascinating record.  From: https://fuzzymuzik.com/en/product/the-ghost-of-a-saber-tooth-tiger-midnight-sun-lp-_-neuf-new/