Ghostland Observatory is an American music duo based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, United States. Their music has been described as a combination of electro,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, and "electro-

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

soul rock" by

Gothamist ''Gothamist'' is a New York City–centric blog operated by New York Public Radio. From 2003 to 2018, Gothamist LLC was the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, an ...

. Front man Aaron Behrens provides

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

in addition to occasionally playing the

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

. Thomas Ross Turner plays the

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s or

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

History

2004-2009

The band released their first full-length

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, '' delete.delete.i.eat.meat'', in 2005 on Turner's Trashy Moped Recordings. They also released their second CD, '' Paparazzi Lightning'', on the same label in January 2006. On October 16, 2007, they made their national television debut on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the ''Late Night (franchise), Late Night'' franchise originally established by David Letterman. Hosted by Conan O'Brie ...

'', performing the song "Sad Sad City". They appeared on ''

Austin City Limits ''Austin City Limits'' is an American Concert, live music Television show, television program recorded and produced by KLRU, Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", an ...

'' in 2007, and released their first live DVD, ''Live from Austin, TX'' on November 13, 2007. In a video shot at the

Vegoose Vegoose was an annual Halloween music and arts festival that took place in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike the Bonnaroo Music Festival — put on by the same organizers, Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment — Vegoose d ...

Music Festival, they announced their album '' Robotique Majestique'', later released on March 4, 2008. On December 26, 2007, Austin newspaper, the ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

'', announced Ghostland Observatory as their band of the year. They performed at the

Austin City Limits Music Festival Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, on two consecutive three-day weekends and is inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series ''Austin City Limits''. The festival is pro ...

, in Austin, TX in 2006, 2007, and 2009. During the CD release party for Robotique Majestique at the Austin City Music Hall performance of "The Band Marches On", the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

marching band accompanied the duo on stage for a lights out performance. A performance that was replicated at the 2009 ACL show. They have appeared at ''

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

'' in Indio, CA and ''

Voodoo Experience The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience (formerly The Voodoo Music Experience), commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, was a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. First started in 1999, it was last hel ...

'' in New Orleans, LA.

2010-2014: Codename: Rondo, hiatus

October 26, 2010, saw the release Ghostland Observatory's fourth album, '' Codename: Rondo'', which was introduced with a show at the Cedar Park Center, in Texas, on October 28, 2010. At that time they took the laser show to another level, having 16 lasers and a sophisticated assemblage of mirrors scattered around the stage to produce visual effects in real time usually only seen in movies. On Thursday March 17, 2011, they participated in a friendly battle against

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

live at the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

SoundClash on

South Padre Island, Texas South Padre Island is a resort town in Cameron County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Brownsville, Texas, Brownsville–Harlingen, Texas, Harlingen Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population w ...

. On August 13, 2011, they performed at Pacific Festival in Orange County, CA alongside Cut Copy and Steve Aoki. They played in the Beat Tent on night 3 of CounterPoint Music Festival in Fairburn, GA. On April 10, 2013, they posted on their Facebook page "Yes it is true. We are on hiatus right now. Bathing and relaxing in the cosmos. Rejuvenating our spirits and soaking in the cosmic rays. Much love to all our GLOheads out there. See y'all in the future." They returned for one show on January 31, 2014, opening for

Jurassic 5 Jurassic 5 (stylized JuraSsic 5) is an American alternative hip hop group formed by rappers Charles Stewart (Chali 2na), Dante Givens (Akil), Courtenay Henderson (Soup (Jurassic 5), Soup, Zaakir), and Marc Stuart (Marc 7); and disc jockeys Mar ...

at the Icelantic Winter on the Rocks concert at the

Red Rocks Amphitheatre Red Rocks Amphitheatre (also known colloquially as simply Red Rocks) is an open-air amphitheater in the Western United States, western United States near Morrison, Colorado, approximately southwest of Denver. It is owned and operated by the c ...

. They also returned to play several shows during South by Southwest (SXSW 2016) in Austin, Texas.

2021: Vultures

On April 9, 2021, the duo made a return with the release of their 5th album, ''Vultures''.

Members

*Aaron Kyle Behrens – Born on January 11, 1982, in San Saba, TX. Behrens is the lead vocalist and guitarist. Behrens was previously involved with the band Dismount and Waking Helix (also consisting of Thomas Turner). *Thomas Ross Turner – Born on August 7, 1979, in Pecos, TX. Turner contributes to background vocals (usually in robotic form), drums, keyboard, and

Select discography

Albums

* 2005: '' delete.delete.i.eat.meat'' (Trashy Moped) * 2006: '' Paparazzi Lightning'' (Trashy Moped) * 2008: '' Robotique Majestique'' (Trashy Moped) * 2010: '' Codename: Rondo'' (Trashy Moped) * 2018:'' See You Later Simulator ''(Trashy Moped) *2021: ''Vultures'' (Trashy Moped)

Extended plays

* 2007: ''Twin Cities'' (Trashy Moped) * 2015: ''Life of the Party'' (Trashy Moped) *2019: ''Channels'' (Trashy Moped)

Live albums

* 2006: ''Austin City Limits: Music Festival 2006'' (Trashy Moped/

) * 2007: ''Live At Lollapalooza 2007'' (Trashy Moped/Lolla) * 2007: ''Austin City Limits: Music Festival 2007'' (Trashy Moped/Austin City Limits)

DVDs

* 2007: ''Live From Austin TX'' (New West)

Compilations

* 2007: ''KVRX Local Live Volume 11: Assacre To Zookeeper'' ‒ CD/DVD combo (KVRX)

References

External links

Trashy Moped Recordings
* "Heavy Heart"

Ghostland Observatory iPhone App - FanSee
{{Authority control Electronic music groups from Texas Dance-punk musical groups Musical groups from Austin, Texas American new wave musical groups Musical groups established in 2004 2004 establishments in Texas