Ghostland Observatory is an American music duo based in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, 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 Wales ...

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 m ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, and "electro-

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

soul rock" by

Gothamist Gothamist LLC is the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, and other local coverage. It was founded in 2003 by Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung. In March 2017, Joe Ricketts, ...

. Front man Aaron Behrens provides

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

in addition to occasionally playing the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. 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 she ...

s or

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

History

2004-2009

The band released their first full-length

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, '' 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 Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

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

Austin City Limits ''Austin City Limits'' is an American live music television program recorded and produced by Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", and is the only television show t ...

'' 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 does ...

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 Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

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

Austin City Limits Music Festival The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival held in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas on two consecutive three-day weekends. Inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series of the same name, the festival is produced by Austin-based ...

, 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. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

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 may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

'' in

Indio, CA Indio (Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies east of Palm Springs, east of Riverside, east of Los Angeles, 148 miles ...

and ''

Voodoo Experience The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience (formerly The Voodoo Music Experience), commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, is a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Voodoo Experience has hosted more t ...

'' 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), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

live at the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

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– Harlingen Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,066 at the 2020 census. The town is located on South Padre Island, a bar ...

. 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 is an American alternative hip hop group formed in 1994 by rappers Charles Stewart (Chali 2na), Dante Givens (Akil), Courtenay Henderson (Soup aka Zaakir), Marc Stuart (Marc 7); and disc jockeys Mark Potsic (DJ Nu-Mark) and Lucas Macf ...

at the Icelantic Winter on the Rocks concert at the

Red Rocks Amphitheatre Red Rocks Amphitheatre (also colloquially as simply Red Rocks) is an open-air amphitheatre built into a rock structure in the Western United States, western United States, near Morrison, Colorado, west of Denver. There is a large, tilted, flyi ...

. 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