The first thing you might notice about Pet Ghost Project is, "Okay. For a small band that I've never heard of, three independently-produced LPs is pretty impressive. These guys must be dedicated musicians."

After a little more research, having listened to a few tracks here and there, you think to yourself, "Whoa. These guys have a pretty big sound, and they can certainly carry an album. In fact, it’s not easy to pinpoint exactly what sound they're trying to offer. They sound a little bit like (insert popular contemporary indie artist), but only a little bit. Let's google these guys."

And then it hits you. This is one dude. One dude sitting in his basement. One dude sitting in his basement recording every instrument, clicking his mouse and turning knobs as he layers screaming guitars and multipart harmonies over rollicking drum beats, fuzzy bass lines, horns, xylophones, and god knows what else. That near-anthemic indie-rock track that you were just blasting in your headphones is the direct result of one dude sitting in his basement, jamming out.

That dude's name is Justin Stivers, and Pet Ghost Project, the inaugural band on up-and-coming new indie label On Another Note Records, is thus not what you expected. While Stivers brings along multi-instrumentalists Jacob More and Justin Gonzales for his live shows, that wall of sound you were just consumed by is the work of one very dedicated, very informed individual.

Stivers' first release, The Great Satisfactory, opens with Drunk and Smiling at Heaven , its explosive beginning and crashing reverb climax bestowing the rest of the album with an angsty and expansive '90s alt-rock feel not unlike a grungier Built to Spill. By the second track, Results and Demands , Stivers reigns it in a bit and begins to exercise creative control over his sound; annunciating his impressive ability to transform his songs from within, Stivers leads the listener in various unexpected directions while always maintaining his original framework. Just as the track can be loosely divided into subsections based on changes in tempo and instrumentation (as Stivers incessantly incorporates fresh ideas), so does the rest of the album include a vast array of effective experimentations.

On Cheer Up ~ It's Raining, Stivers sheds some of the nineties noise for a more colorful and classic sound, trading his pulsing climaxes for something a little more poppy. Not to say the Stivers is toning it down; on Age of Automatics , Stivers may throw in some soft synth and acoustic guitar, but he's still screaming, he's still singing about the corruption of a "peaceful little town," and he's still climaxing. With his guitar. Obviously. If you're partial to a sound more beachy than industrial, this might be the place to start.

Idiot Brain // Genius Heart, Stivers' only EP and my personal favorite of his releases, is probably his darkest work. The Consequence of Thinking (yeah, it's his darkest...) is a journey of a song; opening with an alienating synth distinctly at odds with his older sound and singing, "We're taught to take these lashings with a smile / Yes I suppose we should be thankful / for receiving / anything," Stivers leads us from exuberant pop to rageful sonic explosion, only to conclude with the tinkering of a haunting piano and the cacophonous sound of overlapping children's voices. Children who are playing directly in front of us but just out of our reach, deaf to the warnings of what's to come.

Lastly, Stivers' latest: The Wordless Conversation. Referencing his earlier lyric about the destruction of "peaceful little towns," the opening track is titled They Built a City in My Country Mind, and is the only track to prominently feature vocals; by introducing the album as such, Stivers defines his concept as a strictly instrumental attempt to address an idea that runs through all of his music: namely, that the organic beauty of the individual human mind must be protected against the routine consumption and homogenization of the mainstream. Maybe Stivers needs to return to the rawness of his original sound; maybe it’s gotten so bad that lyrics seem inappropriate and offensive. Whatever the intention, the six wordless tracks that follow show Stivers drawing from his entire catalogue to find a solution. And it works. Beautifully.

Check out Stivers' work before he gets truly discovered and while it's all ultra cheap. I promise you won't be disappointed.

The Wordless Conversation

Recommended Tracks:
They Built a City in My Country Mind
Death in a Pixel

Idiot Brain // Genius Heart EP

Recommended Tracks:
Wires from the Ceiling
The Consequence of Thinking

Cheer Up ~ It's Raining

Recommended Tracks:
Age of Automatics
Electric Angel

The Great Satisfactory

Recommended Tracks:
Results and Demands
At Least I'm Alive