Wake me in a thousand years, when computers can shed tears

February 13, 2011 7:18 AM

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, or The GOASTT to its friends, is a band consisting of musical and romantic partners Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Their music is melancholy and slightly off-kilter. While their stage act has tended toward layered electronic effects, they got back to their roots with their (nearly) full-length album, The Acoustic Sessions. The name of the band is taken from a story that Muhl wrote as a child.

If Michel Gondry had directed the movie AI, it would look exactly like their music sounds. There's plenty of their stuff on the Youtube—here they are performing When the World Was Made for Men at SXSW, and in-studio performing Lavender Road

posted by adamrice (11 comments total)

Based on Sean's previous output, I was sure I was going to hate this. I was very wrong.
posted by Optamystic at 7:27 AM on February 13, 2011

I attended a taping of the NHK TV program "Music Japan" back in November when GOASTT were brought out as unannounced performers, for some "Western music special" that was planned. The song was very nice even if they looked very uncomfortable on stage.

The other "Western" guest that night was Debbie Gibson. They said that Justin Beiber would also be on the broadcast. I don't know if the special ever aired or not as I was not too motivated to seek it out.
posted by acetonic at 7:56 AM on February 13, 2011

They are not so much better than similar groups their age as to overcome the bad taste that comes from their leveraging the crushing advantage of Sean Lennon's personal wealth and parentage to advance their careers, and use up attention that could be going to other artists of their age and musical genre who may be better and might please their audience more. (Jakob Dylan might have been guilty of the same crime, but for the fact the he is very good looking, which adds value to his slightly better-than-mediocre music.) In order for Sean Lennon to be acceptable in the role of up-and-coming musical artists, he'd have to be at least 83% as good as his father was, rather like the Bach sons were in comparison to their father. But Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger is remarkable only in not being worse than average for their genre. Sean Lennon may only be about 30 or 40% as talented as his father. The much more likeable Julien Lennon was -- at his very best -- about 60% as talented as John Lennon. For their own mental and spiritual health, these youngsters needed to go into some totally unrelated field than the one which their father so completely owned. Well, you can't blame Julien. At first, it seems, he really needed the money, as his father and Yoko had cut him out of the big bucks to a certain extent. But I think he's doing okay now. Sean is rich with modest musical talents. He might want to consider engineering.
posted by Faze at 8:59 AM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes, yes, of course, but there's an added layer of complication. While Sean Lennon is 30% as talented as his father, he's only 3% as talented as his mother. How does this affect the equation? And I don't mean to rush you, but we should really figure this out before Frances Bean Cobain releases her first recording.
posted by box at 9:36 AM on February 13, 2011

I'm going to cry when Frances Bean releases her first. I don't know whether they will be tears of joy or sorrow, but there will be tears nonetheless.
posted by oddman at 9:48 AM on February 13, 2011

I didn't know there would be math problems.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:11 AM on February 13, 2011

Fuck man, it would be so much easier to be the kid of just Lennon than Ono.

If your dad was the mega-popstar of popstars you could do whatever musically because you'd never be expected to out do the second coming of the Messiah.

If your mom was the lady who stuck 'YES' on the ceiling, hung out with Ornette Coleman and did weird underground music with him, freaked out Chuck Berry live on tv, was accused of destroying the Beatles (whatever), perhaps invented a genre of music, was respected in multiple fields of art production (including Disco!), and was still making valid statements in her, what?, 80s; man, then you'd want to try your hand at being a janitor.

Or anything else.
posted by artof.mulata at 10:12 AM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Holy crap Frances Bean looks just like Kurt!
posted by Brocktoon at 10:35 AM on February 13, 2011

GOASTT is too close to Goatse for my liking.
posted by cropshy at 12:18 PM on February 13, 2011

I'm content to listen to the pretty music and stare at Charlotte Kemp Muhl
posted by hwestiii at 5:41 PM on February 13, 2011

I'm going to cry when Frances Bean releases her first. I don't know whether they will be tears of joy or sorrow, but there will be tears nonetheless.

I will definitely give anything she tries a listen. That's if she even goes in that direction.
posted by XhaustedProphet at 10:57 PM on February 13, 2011