Minus Story: No Rest For Ghosts Review

Minus Story: No Rest For Ghosts
[Jagjaguwar - 2005]
*Sixeyes Score: 8.4 out of 10



You could use the tracklist of Minus Story's latest, No Rest For Ghosts, to start off a smart-ass review of the album... something like this:

"I Was Hit" while "Knocking On Your Head" and "Ringing In The Dark... so "Hold On" "Little Wet Head". "Waking Up" "Will I Be Fighting? Even when "There Is a Light" "To The Ones You Haunted " "In Our Hands". See?

No Rest For Ghosts is the Lawrence, Kansas band's fourth release following quickly on the heels of their 2005 EP, Heaven and Hell. It follows a familiar path for the band, intriguing sounds and elliptical lyrics married to strong swaying melodies. Can you remember when you first started reading on your own? How you enjoyed it, but there was so much you didn't understand? That's what listening to Minus Story can do to you. It can turn you into an eight year old sitting under a tree in the backyard with your older brother's Marvel Comics. Loving the stories, but not 'getting' all of it. Nothing wrong with that, it's good to know there are good, or great, things out there that you can't understand. Art isn't to be understood it is to be enjoyed. And there's much to enjoy on this new album, from the upbeat and strange story-book-for-adults-like "Little Wet Head"; to the beautiful blue ache of "Will I Be Fighting" with it's lovely pairing of Geiger's emotional falsetto and his own trumpet playing. Minus Story have not traded any of their ragged indie sound for a more accessible record, and this is laudable and telling, for the boys from Boonville, Missouri, are inching into Modest Mouse "Float On" territory with this release.

The wonderfully crafted sound is amazing when you realize they have never, ever, recorded an album in a recording studio. I can just imagine what they will unfurl onto tape if they venture into the welcoming confines of a studio such as Tiny Telephone in San Francisco. Mr. Vanderslice are you listening?