“We have some great friends from Eugene,” says Sam Owens of Brooklyn-based indie-rock trio Celestial Shore. “All of them are wonderful people and talented musicians. There must be something in the water.”
Last spring Celestial Shore opened for indie-rock critical darlings Deerhoof. Now Celestial Shore are coming to Eugene in support of 2014’s Enter Ghost, a collection of guitar-centric indie rock blending the sweet, British-invasion flower power of The Zombies with the taut aggressiveness of ’90s bands like The Pixies.
“We love The Zombies,” Owens explains, adding: “We grew up in the ’90s. I think it’s less [’90s] revival and more ‘what we know/like to listen to.’”
Enter Ghost’s “Gloria” opens with a glorious, lumbering bass line recalling Pixies’ bass player Kim Deal.
Listen closely to angular, arty tracks like “Creation Myth” and “Same Old Cult Story” and notice some heady, complex musical time signatures. The song “Shell Shocked” features spacey and psychedelic musical breaks, fills and interludes that lurch and sway to their own inner logic, righting themselves before devolving into complete disarray.
But Owens says Celestial Shore isn’t a prog-rock band schooled in esoteric music theory. “Pitchfork says we’re ‘inspired and insolent.’ That works for me,” Owens says, adding, “We’ve been playing together for a while now and our musical language has developed into something very specific and idiosyncratic. We never count anything,” Owens jokes.
Celestial Shore plays 10 pm Friday, Nov. 28, at Luckey’s; $5, 21-plus.