Ghost House

Luke Simcoe, OP Bombastician

Favourite Track: Modern Manners

As a prominent Vancouver musician and sound
engineer at the Hive, Jesse Gander (www.jessegan-
der.com) has had his hands in a number of recent
Vancouver music projects: Operation Makeout,
Black Rice, The Doers, The Buttless Chaps,
S.T.R.E.E.TS., and Elizabeth to name a few. But
what’s interesting is that no matter how diverse the
bands or records were, the thread of earnest punk
rock that Jesse began with his first band, d.b.s., has
managed to run through it all; sometimes it’s direct,
sometimes it’s more subtle, but it’s always there, and
his quasi-solo effort, released under the Ghost
House moniker, is no exception.

For starters, you can download all of Departures
on Ghost House’s website
(www.ghosthousemusic.com). Few things ate as
punk rock as smashing capitalism by straight-up giv-
ing your music to the people. The band’s myspace
page (www.myspace.com/ghosthouseband) even
does away with the seemingly requisite indie-slash-
whatever description and forthrightly labels Ghost
House solely as ‘pop/punk.’

Pop/punk, eh? Although you won’t hear me
clamoring for Blink 182 or Jimmy Eat World com-
parisons, Departures belongs in that camp. Despite
the fact that it’s principally a piano-driven piece of
work, Gander’s fingers on the ivory, combined with
his somewhat spastic voice and a relentless rhythm
section carry you along and drive the album forward
at a tempo that can only be described as punk.

— Departures

Gander’s heartfelt lyrics run the gamut of love, loss,
and friendship, and that pretty much seals the deal
on the pop side.

One of the best things about Departures is that
Gander finds himself backed by a bunch of
Vancouver’s best musicians; he’s giving the new
Luda album a run for its money in terms of A-list
guest spots. Tons of his former partners-in-crime
show up on the album, including Katie Lapi
(Cadeaux, Operation Makeout), Andy Dixon (d.b.s.,
The Red Light Sting, Winning), Allan Boyle (Witness
Protection Program), and Steve Matheson and
Marissa Johnson of The Seams. Despite the collabo-
rative nature of the whole affair, Gander makes sure
to keep his hands on the helm, and consequently
Departures is still a cohesive record and an accurate
depiction of Jesse’s solo skills.

Gander’s evolution from a spiky-haired, overly
pierced kid screaming “fuck you, I won't do a single
fucking thing that you tell me to do,” from a stage
somewhere in Langley into what the Georgia
Straight refers to as “an essential figure in the local
[music] community” has been an exciting journey,
and after listening to Departures, I’m glad that it’s a
journey that’s far from over. It’s rare that a record
grabs me so quickly (I usually hate everything until I
find myself listening to a record one night when I
can’t sleep and realizing that I love it), so keep your
eyes peeled for the reissued (and remixed) version of
Departures that should be out on Reluctant records,
and arriving at Scratch, Red Cat, or Zulu in the very
near future.

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