Four experienced Cincinnati musicians have teamed up for a new all-instrumental Rock project. Featuring members who've played in local bands like The Light Wires, Wojo, El Gigante, Alone at 3AM and Pike 27, Ghost Man On Second makes its live debut this Friday, May 24 at Lucius Q. The show is free and begins at 8 p.m. (Get more show info here.)
The band features guitarist/keyboardist Mike Fair, guitarist Andy Hittle, bassist Aaron Zlatkin and drummer Dave Purcell (who also triggers samples). With the tagline "soundtracks for the movies in your head," Ghost Man On Second draws on an "everything but the kitchen sink" range of influences that includes Tortoise, The Police, Tom Waits, Los Lobos and The Meters.
Purcell says he leaves out some of their relatively obscure (but still very important) influences when describing the band to others.
"(Most) of the people I interact with have no idea who Bill Frisell or Pell Mell is. So I've taken to saying, 'We sound like if The Police and Los Lobos made a movie soundtrack together.' " he says. "That still loses 95 percent of people that I interact with, but at least they nod their heads affirmatively and pretend that they're down. Hopefully, they don't think everything sounds like 'La Bamba.' "
With Pike 27, Purcell's primary band for the past two decades, he's been the singer and lyricist, so he says it has been a refreshing challenge to switch gears with Ghost Man and go word-less.
"It's interesting to go from being a guy who put a lot of time into my lyrics, to learning how to tell stories with no words at all," he says. "There's just too much yelling in the world right now and it feels undignified to add to it."
Visit ghostmanonsecond.net for more info and follow the band on Facebook here.
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