Television Ghost Puts the ‘Punk’ Back Into Post-Punk

This isn’t music for the faint of heart, this is music for, as Nghia so eloquently puts it, “scaring the rodents away from your apartment” (if you’re so lucky enough to have any scurrying about). The City of Lafayette, Indiana, home to Purdue University and birthplace of Axl Rose (no shit!?) has a paranoia echoing through its streets – sending even the robust forms of life dwelling beneath them running for the hills fields. In the vein of The Cramps, The Fall, Suicide, and The Birthday Party, Lafayette’s Television Ghost tests the boundaries of rhythmic noise. Tense, manic vocals, aggressive drums, and the menacing attack of two guitars sends a distressing, eerie chill running down my spine. “The Nihilist” and “Babel” are corrosive numbers sparked with anxiety and saturated with Wire-like riffs that twist, turn, and swirl into the dark and ominous underworld of post-punk. Watch those critters scurry from the second you drop the needle on the band’s self-titled LP, as the lingering sine-wave of “XXXX-XXX” pulls them into a vortex only to be spit out and steamrolled by the violent shifting tempos of “No Doz.” If any brave souls are left, the fiery reverb and spooky vibrations of “Circus” should send them packing. By that point however, your neighbor might have shit his or her pants, opening up a whole other can of worms.

The Television Ghost LP is out now on Ohio imprint die Stasi.

[MP3]: Television Ghost  ”Babel”
Televison Ghost LP, die Stasi; 2008