The Ghost Songs

Another She & Him in the making? The vintage pop of Zooey Deschanel's collaboration with M. Ward will be returning to SXSW with a new album, but there's a lesser-known singer-actress with a rootsy musical project making an appearance at SXSW this year. Worth investigating is Ghost Songs, featuring Austin's Stephanie Hunt (from "Friday Night Lights"). The songs available on the band's MySpace page are tripped-out folk, but more recent cuts with Hunt taking the lead vocals show the band straightening out the weirdness, and settling into a retro curtsey. - Los Angeles Times

And now for the music: After the jump, some of the acts that made the biggest lasting impression on me:
The Ghost Songs. The Austin band at times struck a vintage "Nuggets"-era garage-rock sound similar to Roky Erickson's 13th Floor Elevators, although the Ghost Songs went for something far more charming and approachable. Led by the woozy-voiced Chris Catalena, the band, performing what it said was its second show ever, wrapped its melodies with a sense of adventurousness. The multiple vocals -- sometimes deliberately out of sync -- add a sense of mystery, and Stephanie Hunt's violin added a slight back-porch feel. It's a bit tripped-out, and more than a little playful. New songs with Hunt taking the lead on vocal show a greater pop appeal, although the "Friday Night Lights" actress said after the show that they weren't ready to be debuted to an audience. Listen. - Los Angeles Times

From LA Times article, November 19, 2009. See full article @

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/11/stephanie-hunt-the-rock-n-roll-newcomer-to-friday-night-lights.html

Hunt’s currently a backing singer and dancer in Austin’s 10-piece soul revivalist group T-Bird and the Breaks and is touring with them this week. She’s also formed a band under the moniker of the Ghost Songs, an act that features veterans of Austin's psychedelic rock scene.

Christian Bland and Alex Maas of the Black Angels, as well as Chris Catalena of the Tunnels, are among Hunt's collaborators. Rather than tap the '60s-influenced, feedback-scorched guitar effects of the latter artists, the Ghost Songs go for a more laid-back, albeit still trippy, mood.

Hunt said the Ghost Songs have recorded seven songs thus far (sample "Do Run," with its gothic backing vocals above, and the woozy "You Gotta Move" below).

“We’re calling it haunted pop,” Hunt said. “It calls definitely back to [Bob Dylan’s] ‘Blonde on Blonde.’ I guess you can call it psychedelic folk, in a way.”

Hunt said there’s a possibility the Ghost Songs will relocate to Los Angeles, where she is realizing she will soon have to move if she wants to pursue acting full time. “Parenthood,” in which Hunt plays the close friend of one the main characters, will shoot here.

“I wasn’t wanting to,” Hunt said of moving West, although she now expects to relocate after the first of the year. As for what that means for her musical projects in the interim, "that is the big question," Hunt said.

“I’m trying to fuse the two together,” Hunt said of her musical and acting paths, “which is why I’ve been working on the demos. I want an idea of what my music could be before I could go out to L.A.

“I want to have my roots firmly planted. I don’t want to go out chasing something that I don’t know. I want to know what it is I’m going for.”

— Todd Martens

- Los Angeles Times