G.L.O. - You Know You Want To

I first ran into the band Ghostland Observatory 3 years ago. Freddy, my FP (Finger Puppet), and I were at an outdoor music festival called Austin City Limits (ACLMF) and walking from one main stage to another main stage in the hot August Texas heat. We’ve been to all but the first of the ACL festivals. While, some folks take it very seriously, Freddy and I go for the fun of the festival. It’s about beers, bands we’ve never heard before, and a weekend without kids. But some folks, they camp out in front of the stage that their faves are going to play hours before hand; they miss out on everything to hear the one band they truly love. Not us. We wander like gypsies, from one stage to the next sampling sets of bands that normally I’d never hear. I normally do some research before the shows. I try diligently to find out who exactly I want to hear and see, but it’s always easy to miss a hidden gem or two. Thank God for our gypsy hearts. So that said, we were in between folks that I desperately wanted to see and stopped when we caught a bit of a sound that immediately intrigued us. Like flies drawn into the light, we cautiously approached the smaller stage where this infectious danceable electric eclectic pop-punk mixture was just starting to emanate from. So we grab a spot next to these teen kids who were way to young to be that stoned and proceed to watch what can only be described as the best live performance I think I’ve ever seen. My first comment to Freddy was “Damn, this chick can dance!”. He simply nods and bobs in a white boy way to the music. So onstage is a super fit masculine “chick” with pigtails, a guitar, and dance moves that some would consider illegal AND a synthesizer/keyboardist dressed as a wizard/super-hero/Dracula amalgam. Somewhere through the second song of their set, me and the pot-head teens next to us, figured out that the super fit chick dancing like she’s on fire was actually a dude. Their response was “Whoa, that chick is totally a dude.” Which, honestly, was similar in plot and style to my reaction, if not in words.

It turns out that the pig tailed dancer/singer is Aaron Kyle Behrens, who is 2 parts Freddy Mercury, 1 part Prince, 1 part Janet Jackson, and a pinch of Mick Jagger. He’s seriously amazing to watch live. He blends femininity and masculinity as deftly as David Bowie or Annie Lennox did it 30 years ago, but with a style that makes it feel fresh and his own. He’s pretty much the hottest thing on legs while on stage. It’s a bit like watching a snake charmer, there is a palpable feel of danger and art and it always leaves me deeply jealous of his wife. Aaron is joined on stage by partner in musical crime, Thomas Ross Turner, who makes the sound of Ghostland Observatory come to life in an eerie robotic/electronic masterpiece of a way. His cape is also pretty darn fantastic. This duo makes up the sound of G.L.O., but when seen live, it’s clear that the lighting and stage ambiance is clearly intended to be the third member of the group. They intentionally put on a show. In the oldest most coolest sense of the word. It’s Show Business and they mean it.

That first afternoon, at the end of their set, we left the dancing teen pot heads and their interesting perversion of an apple bong and walked on to the next band on my itinerary, but the music and the act stayed with me for the rest of the day. In fact it’s still with me. Which is one of the measuring sticks for good art. We’ve seen them 3 or 4 times since, but I always remember my first. I am such a girl that way.



G.L.O. have put out three albums so far, delete.delete.i.eat.meat., Paparazzi Lightning, and Robotique Majestique. Each has a slightly different flavor but each remains hard to describe musically. Of the three, I’d recommend Paparazzi Lightning as the first album to check out for a G.L.O. noob. Sad Sad City, Shoot ‘Em Down, or Vibrate being likely my favorite songs of G.L.O. if you want to check ‘em out on Youtube. The way the band has described their music on Myspace as “A Robot making love to a tree.” That works just as good as anything I could say about them myself. It’s important to note that Ghostland Observatory don’t consider themselves a band, but “an agreement between two friends to create something that not only heals their beat-driven hearts, but pleases their rock ‘n roll souls.” Go see them live if you want either healing or pleasure.