While their name suggests specters from light years away, Ghosts of Jupiter are actually cosmically switched-on earthlings with a gift for rock with wide-reaching implications. There’s heft to this Boston-based quintet, who draw inspiration from the muscular, freewheeling hard rock of the 60s/70s and meld it to the serious crush of contemporaries like The Raconteurs, The Black Keys, and Rival Sons. While many have used Cream, Hendrix and their gifted peers as a springboard, Ghosts of Jupiter create music that’s alive in a way that echoes the vibrancy of their ancestors. Put on their self-titled debut to hear a band who believes in rock’s power to explore and rejuvenate; a colorful, tough and tight ride into the outer reaches of the mind.
Ghosts of Jupiter know how to stretch into the possibilities of a song but their overall approach bears a closer resemblance to Zeppelin — powerful, gripping and capable of surprises at every turn. Nate Wilson (lead vocals, keyboards), Johnny Trama (guitar), Adam Terrell (guitar), Tommy Lada (bass), and Thomas Arey (drums) combine grit and high-end musicianship that makes them a contemporary and healthy competitor to Wolfmother, Kings of Leon and others at the forefront of today’s real rock movement.
After just over a year of playing together, alt-country-rockers The Mallett Brothers Band swept the top categories at the 2011 Portland Phoenix’s Best Music Awards, winning Best Local Act, Best Live Act, and Best Local Album. Their fall 2010 performance at the National Underground in NYC was listed among the “Best Shows of 2010″ by the award-winning music blog Hidden Track, and their debut album was named the Top New Local Album (Maine and New Hampshire) of 2010 by Bull Moose Music, after spending nearly a full year on the weekly Top 10 Local Album chart. They shared a bill with the likes of Derek Trucks, The Flaming Lips, Jakob Dylan and Furthur at the 2010 Nateva Festival; they regularly sell out establishments ranging from rock clubs to grange halls throughout New England; and at their March 2011 performance at Portland’s Port City Music Hall, more alcohol was allegedly consumed than at any other local show in the venue’s history. The band most recently won first prize in the 2011 "Rockin' Country Showdown" put on by 99.9 The Wolf, southern Maine's #1 country station, beating out some very tough competition from all over New England.
While they’ve been called “a party that cannot be missed” (The Deli Magazine), “an authentic, rip-roarin’ alt country band” (The Portland Press Herald), “no softies” (The Portland Phoenix), “amazing” (The Piscataquis Observer) “luminaries” (NonAlignmentPact), with their songwriting compared to Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt (The Bangor Daily News), Sam Pfeifle of the Portland Phoenix is perhaps most accurate in his observation that “this band always seems to be having a hell of a time, and that emotion is infectious.”
Ghosts of Jupiter have already shared the stage with Buffalo Killers and Dead Meadow, and will be ramping up their live appearances in the wake of their debut release.
