Like a magnet attracts metal, Vancouver, British Columbia draws kindred souls from across the islands and upper mainland to its informal musical heart. So it did occur in 2008 when Adrian Teacher, Amanda Panda and Jay Oliver found themselves standing before an ominous looking door on East Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver, drawn from their childhood homes in points north. Looking for a practice space for their band Apollo Ghosts, they had been tempted by the off-kilter chiming sounds coming from the second floor windows and decided to inquire with the landlord.



This studio soon became their home (not literally, landlord!) and they began a strict regimen of practice, record, go to a show, eat, sleep, begin again. At the conclusion of this intense period of punk conditioning, they were rewarded with a gust of tunes that became Hasting Sunrise and its follow up EP, Forgotten Triangle. A full course of tender truth, intellectual sing-along and lo-fi charm, their initial offering was hailed by influential NYC blogger Ryan Catbird as his “favorite thing to listen to all throughout the year.” Discorder Magazine called the group one of the best Vancouver bands of the decade. Despite selling out of their initial run of vinyl records, Exclaim Magazine still described them as “criminally under-hyped.”

But local heroism can only get you so far and now the Apollo Ghosts stand ready to stun the world with Mount Benson. An ode to the hard-scrabble city of Nanaimo, BC, Mount Benson divulges the dark secrets of this luckless Vancouver Island town, a demystification on par with revealing the Masonic Handshake. Is the song Wakesiah just a tribute to a street above a former coal mine or really about a former lover? How dangerous can it be to swim in Witchcraft Lake? Who are the Sons of Norway? Is this all actually a ploy to reveal why former eccentric mayor, Frank Ney, wore pirate suits and rode in bathtubs across the Strait of Georgia?

Stumbling upon the Apollo Ghosts (www.myspace.com/adrianteacher) is a reward akin to finding a twenty dollar bill in an empty parking lot. You’ve just won the cosmic lottery!
-Lois Maffeo


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