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Ghost Brain

by Buck Gooter

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    The limited edition second pressing of Ghost Brain on spectral transparent green vinyl!!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $25 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Get the best of all worlds for a special price with this bundle of Ghost Brain on spectral transparent green vinyl and a PUNK t-shirt with subtle Buck Gooter branding.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $40 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Snag the Ghost Brain LP on spectral transparent green vinyl with a copy of Head In A Bird Cage LP for a special price!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $30 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    Ghost Brain record label image screenprinted in silver ink on black shirts. Download code for the Ghost Brain album included.
    ships out within 3 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Ghost Brain on CD!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Ghost Brain on cassette! The music on SIDE B is slightly different from all other versions of the album!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Bag + Digital Album

    The only piece of advice I feel comfortable giving is this: always leave home with an empty bag. This Ghost Brain label image black tote could be that bag! Fits a few LPs, heavy canvas cotton with silver ink!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Both collaborations between Buck Gooter & A Place To Bury Strangers (Ghost Brain and Thirsty Knights) in a specially priced bundle.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    Say it LOUD! This design riffs on an image from a classic button. Contains subtle Buck Gooter branding. Two color screen print on black t-shirts.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Super limited bundle of both vinyl colors
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Get Ghost Brain on black and spectral green vinyl for a special price with this bundle. Super limited quantity!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited edition vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Ghost Brain on black vinyl.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Vinyl & T-shirt
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Ghost Brain on black vinyl & Ghost Brain label t-shirt (silver ink on black shirts).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Four LP bundle! One day only!
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Get the Ghost Brain LP bundled with Witch Molecules, First Decade, and Head In A Bird Cage for a special price. One day only!

    Witch Molecules was released on the German label X-Mist in 2013 and probably only 200 or so copies ever made it out of Deutschland! These LP sleeves are a little scuffed up after sitting on a shelf at Dischord for ten years, but the vinyl is in unplayed condition!

    All on black vinyl except for HIABC, which has two colors to choose from! Only FOUR sets available!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Vinyl & Embossed Serigraph
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Ghost Brain on black vinyl bundled with a 9"x12" poster of the "Buck Gooter watching Todd's shadowplay in Oklahoma City, 2018" back cover photo by Morgan Garrett, feral-style screenprinted by BB w/ embossed logo. Extremely limited vinyl pressing of only 100 copies!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Four LP bundle! One day only!
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Get the Ghost Brain LP bundled with The Spider's Eyes, First Decade, and Head In A Bird Cage for a special price. One day only! All on black vinyl except for HIABC, which has three colors to choose from! Only three sets available!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Ghost Brain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
The Serger 03:43
The Serger (B. Brett / BG) Go Run me through the serger Sew me up proper In order to pass inspection: Go I'm thread I'm a series of disturbances Through the fabric of time The serger pushes me through In a clean line The serger pushes me through So I don't unwind A series of disturbances Through the fabric of time
2.
Burning Glass (B. Brett / BG) Life spent staring at burning glass Every liquid crystal fire in hand: Nothing but ash. Wishing it would all turn back into sand Burn me to ash Vitrify me Make me burning glass Vitrify me I know you're on the other side of this burning glass (Ever feel like dust?) It's curling around me, it's closing in fast (Ever feel like dust?) Well hello sir! It's your luck day! I think you have the potential to be glass Let me tell you about this exciting new offer First, we grind you into sand Then I'll shoot a lightning bolt from my hand and VOILA! You'll be glass Let's get started right away You don't wanna be late!!! I'm stuck in the blue light void with all the trendy kids from high school I tried to avoid And what's this? Oh no it's home room! I'm doomed to home room! All this enragement for six percent engagement (if you're lucky).
3.
Symbiotic 01:54
Symbiotic (B. Brett / BG) Symbiotic politics Two sides make each other rich They take turns pissing on each other Turns to gold wherever they're hit It's a shame to bring identity into this That's how they sop up those without interest THEN Uh-oh! There you go! Back to corporate control! Symbiotic politics usher in a really lame apocalypse Wherever they piss it turns to gold and UGH This story's so old AND Uh-oh! There you go! Back to corporate control!
4.
Fragments (B. Brett / BG) Body boiled and flesh is scraped off the bone Salt cured the heart for the journey home Somewhere else: The superheated offering is thrown So when it hits the water it explodes I don't know why they lied Before I hit the sky I don't know why they still lie When I'm packed up and ready for the ride I don't know why they lied Before I hit the sky I don't know why they still lie When I fracture from the fire When you find me like this You'll make excuses, a million reasons When you lie to me like this You'll have excuses, a million reasons why
5.
Buddha 02:15
Buddha (T.Turtle / BG) If I could sit still and not move at all Like that damned statue My problems might go away I long to become a buddha statue Caring not if I get laid or fed And not having to work Yes, twould be nice to be a Buddha statue Or maybe even a tombstone
6.
Chain Stringer Man (B. Brett / BG) Chain stringer man Got a pile of mythologies in his hand He's docking the skiff When you say he's burning you over and over again He knows you mean it He's screaming and screaming and screaming Chain stringer flying He's doing the best he can No excuses just facts No brag just facts His whole life like dust That fills a pot hole up Sand in shattered glass Chain stringer man Come and gone at last Every lie doesn't have to have meaning Upon its revealing Remember, aight? And save some time Gather round acolytes of the loudspeaker And casual observers alike Let's amuse ourselves from our places of comfort With stories of the pyrrhic victories of rock and roll HAHAHAHA How charming! You know what those little ragamuffins seem to be saying? "Annihilate me with music". HAHAHAHA
7.
Tail Of The Beast (B. Brett / BG) Glass at every ending Glass will seal all fate Chicxulub impactor Five thousand foot tall waves Mile high waves Glass at every end Not from the Baptistina The earth reacts with granite Annihilate me at the tail of the beast A last breath passed sucking in glass Caught in gills three thousand miles away A closed system Pieces of itself fall away To make way for new arrivals When the glass rained down it took everything out Every time in the present, future, or past The end begins with glass Vitrified at the end Shock metamorphism Impact metamorphism Six hundred mile per hour winds Iridium rain An atypical lack of scavenging suggests Few other species survived to feed off The mass dying Ejected to the surface due to immense pressures of impact
8.
Carl Sagan (T. Turtle / BG) Tried to read a book a little girl gave to me I only got three pages before I couldn't see
9.
Shock Collar Off (B. Brett / BG) Shock Collar Off When it's dark you can see the sparks May they get double what they wish us Before you left I'd never lived a day you hadn't seen Wide-eyed and wondering Now you're electricity I'm stuck here shocked I'm stuck here pondering That dog's not barking at me Or testing its chain It's enjoying the echo Off a nearby train May they get double what they wish us What you see is what you get
10.
Knurling 02:06
Knurling (B. Brett / BG) Panicking! AH! Left and right But everything's divine Life is screwed up right The knurling's perfect for making it tight Machined for grip etched to TWIST you can seal it or remove it at your convenience In case it's time to open up and you're staring at a wound sewn shut and a jar full of salted up hearts the knurling's perfect for taking it apart The knurling is perfectly machined to offer you a life of ease the knurling is all over everything it signals an opening
11.
Distant Future (B. Brett / BG) Interferons Rise! I'm an interferon! Distant future: the door bell Distant future: the wake up call Sing distant future Bring love back to all Distant future The reanimator Distant future Interferon Interferons Rise! I'm an interferon! Distant future
12.
Eight Bladed Iris (B. Brett / BG) Rained like hell the night you left Came down so hard almost beat me to death There's a box of shoes filled with ones and twos And pictures of you Lollipops too! Right where you left it Under the bed Where all the rain drained off my head And every tree that fell was dead But I'm alright Hands in the box like a case of the blues If you ever lose me I'm always with you Eight bladed iris tells the truth Ghost brain whispers something back to you Can't tell what it is but it seems as real as it gets Ghost brain whispers something back to you Ghost brain expands and contracts Eight bladed iris expands and contracts Ghost brain meets itself as it turns Eight bladed iris: A circular blur
13.
Time flies 02:18
Time Flies (T. Turtle / BG) There's a fly In my ice cream The ice cream melts But not the fly
14.
Sun T 02:11

about

“This is ghost-motivated electronic rock.”

That’s how Buck Gooter’s sole earthly member, Billy Brett, describes the band’s upcoming album, Ghost Brain. It depicts a collaboration beyond the mortal coil, as he honors the dying wish of his bandmate, Terry Turtle, who passed away in 2019. Terry urged Billy to keep playing his music and continue their musical partnership, which saw the duo record more than a dozen records and tour relentlessly, equally mesmerizing and freaking out crowds in hundreds of gritty DIY spaces and revered venues alike over the course of 14 years. That promise culminated in their 2021 album Head In A Bird Cage, and persists with Ghost Brain.

As Ghost Brain symbolizes Terry’s eternal presence in Buck Gooter through a vast archive of recordings and raw lyrics, the title also implies the state of the band beyond just this album. There is no era of Buck Gooter that can be truly labeled as “after Terry Turtle.”

Ghost Brain was written following a two-year songwriting break for Buck Gooter, as the COVID-19 pandemic halted touring plans and Billy took time to figure out the band’s next steps. That downtime was not without experimentation, however, and ideas sketched out in quarantine became some of the substance of Ghost Brain. Billy began writing these songs as he traditionally would for past Buck Gooter albums - cobbling together a pile of beats which he would then send to Terry, and the two would build the songs from there. This time, he sent those beats to Oliver Ackermann, frontman of noise rock titans A Place To Bury Strangers, who mastered the demos at his New York studio, Death By Audio. Billy later traveled to Death By Audio to track the songs and complete the album.

The album contains the hallmarks of Buck Gooter’s sound, described about as close as one can attempt as “primal industrial blues” - chaos, synth-driven noise, the clash of machinery, caveman-tier percussion, and Billy’s sardonic clamor. Oliver Ackermann features on most of the tracks as well, such as the distorted, aggro bass riff on the scorching, aptly titled “Burning Glass,” the album’s lead single. Abrasive drum samples hold up tracks like Ghost Brain’s opener, “The Serger,” “Symbiotic,” and “Tail of the Beast,” while others such as “Knurling” feature an ambient drone throughout. Like his departed bandmate, Billy even waxes poetic with spoken word performances on “Eight Bladed Iris” and “Chain Stringer Man,” where, over languid, looped, and plucked pedal steel he delivers a sarcastic, *almost* nihilistic sermon (say what you want, at least it’s an ethos). Of course, Billy’s snarl is just as frequent on the album with tracks like “Fragments,” a manifesto that boxes your ears with a clash of primitive war drums, Oliver’s bass riffs, and industrial noise.

As the album title implies, the musings of Terry’s “Ghost Brain” are present throughout the entire album, just as his guitar and chain mail mask stand as a forever haunting tribute on Buck Gooter’s stage. He can be heard through voice samples (ranging from shit talking to the last voicemail message Terry ever left on Billy's phone) and drones…even an improv MicroKorg jam. But Terry makes his entrance crooning on “Buddha,” in which he ponders mortality. Terry also sings lead on the foreboding, yet rhythmic, “Carl Sagan,” as well as “Time Flies” - which sets one of his most well-known poems to music.

Ghost Brain demonstrates the clear fact that we have not heard the last of Buck Gooter, and with more recordings left to discover, we certainly have not heard the last of Terry Turtle. But while the album continues to pay tribute to his legacy with Buck Gooter, it depicts a path forward. Billy Hunt, who collaborated with Billy Brett in the project Dendriforms, features on the track “Distant Future” - a bright and relatively uncommon optimistic number for the band - and was recently announced as Brett’s new partner in Buck Gooter. The sound throughout Ghost Brain is that of a will to rebuild after desolation. It’s almost like some of the most beloved post-apocalyptic movies: bleak, but hopeful.

--Calvin Pynn

credits

released April 4, 2023

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Oliver Ackermann at Death By Audio, Queens, NY.

Buck Gooter is, eternally:

Terry Turtle - voices, guitars
Billy Brett - voices, electronics

Other musical contributors to Ghost Brain:
Oliver Ackermann - bass or noise and/or studio wizardry on every song
Ben Jaffe - Sax on "Tail Of The Beast"
Gary Ziroli - Chorus vocal on "Knurling"
Billy Hunt - Drums on "Distant Future"

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Buck Gooter Harrisonburg, Virginia

Ghost-motivated electronic rock.

TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME.

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