AND THE TEARS WASHED ME, WAVE AFTER COWARDLY WAVE

nothingsoundsbetter:

“Shadow of a Shadow” - The Casket Girls

“Are you afraid of the dark? Turn around and there’s nothing there.”

I had forgotten how many musical projects Ryan Graveface was involved in - Dreamend, where he’s recently gone NBC Hannibal and gotten in a serial killers’ head; Black Moth Super Rainbow, the well-named, unique pop enigma; The Marshmallow Ghosts, which I’m less familiar with but seem to fit the same vein, if more delightfully Halloween appropriate; and The Casket Girls, where he shifts a haunted house into an alternate dimension, and more besides.

The Casket Girls is a band aptly named, and quite recognizably backed by Graveface’s work. Even leaving subject matter and band name aside, his work has always been amply imbued with jarring, otherworldly elements that skew towards more upbeat and sinister registers. Very Halloween chic I was going to say, but the first thing to come up when I googled that was a Pinterest board. Moving on.

Goth pop is hip right now (says a man shamelessly shackled to that bandwagon). There are numerous wonderful artists (Zola Jesus being a favorite) and a neverending plethora of… less noteworthy recent entries (apologies, Esben - I tried) in a field becoming increasingly crowded yet ever more diverse. Graveface gives The Casket Girls a subversive, legitimately spooky bent that gives the group an diaphonous leg up.

The Record Store Day-released Self-Titled mini-LP is streaming on Filter [link] and, if it’s opened the - casket, grave, pick your pun - of that id you thought you’d buried deep, the digital/cassette release is available from Graveface’s own self-titled record label [link].

The final of the five tracks is especially delicious, with direct-from-DVD organ and a monstrous, twisted swell that devours the release’s sweetest melody. 

This is what happens when one writes after watching two hours of disturbing, visually arresting horror crime television.

- Tyler Hanan