Kansas City’s RxGhost enters a new era of ‘danger pop’ via rambunctious live album release
Rx Ghost. // photo courtesy the artist
Genre-fluid music calls for its own unique descriptor, and Kansas City outfit RxGhost coined danger pop to describe their “pop songs wrapped in shoegaze/alt-rock noise and texture.”
Their sound tends toward driving, heady post-rock that pushes you up to a ledge only to gently lower you down into a cool wash of reverb. Crooning and introspective songs are supported by a tight and high-energy rhythm section. The sparkling, moody atmosphere at their live shows is enveloping; they bring memorable ambiance regardless of venue and have kindly packaged up ten songs of the live Rx experience for us to listen to any time (any time but now, any time…).
Paul Malinowski (of Shiner and Massive Sound Studio) had previously recorded and mixed RxGhost’s first album, Scaffolding, and reached back out the summer of 2024 to see if they wanted to share a ticket at recordBar.
This invite stacked nicely with a separate one from Steve Tulipana, owner of recordBar, who makes a point to help local bands get onto bills with larger touring acts. Extending the hand to local musicians in such a way is a huge benefit to the scene, and the members of RxGhost were happy to join the ticket for both concerts.
Rx Ghost. // photo courtesy the artist
And so, in July and August, Rx played back-to-back shows at the venue, supporting Ohio’s Cloud Nothings and longtime local rockers Shiner, respectively. Playing a packed mid-sized venue with touring acts and breakout local bands–with one date sold out and the other pushing close to it–marked a transformative summer for the group.
“Having a band with that kind of history bring us in felt huge,” says frontman and guitarist Josh Thomas. “My heart skipped a few beats when I saw his name pop up on my phone. I have a framed flyer from that Shiner show hanging in my basement recording studio, a reminder of one of those nights that felt bigger than just another local gig.”
recordBar famously has a great soundboard, so they pulled the recordings from their performances that summer and assembled the best of each to be mixed by Malinowski, referred to by Thomas as a “sonic wizard” who could take a garbage recording and make it sound good. The performances were well above garbage-grade, and the result of his mixing sounds really great.
The live recordings lose the controlled compression of the studio and gain in gain. “Sharks” is the spitting image of its studio-recorded counterpart, but with extra crunchy, scratchy guitar leads. Some of the other already-released tracks, like “Nail House” and “People Are Animals,” host an uninhibited, fuller sound and an echo-y crash, fresh textures, with a warm hum that fills the open spaces. The tracklist features three songs from their upcoming album, Upkeep, to be released this winter. A little over a year after their performances, listeners will get to hear these impressively clean live cuts that nearly live up to the experience of hearing RxGhost live.
Live at recordBar, available for stream and download as of this week, basks in the glow of a special moment in time for the members of the band. Its release at this particular time marks the symbolic closing of a chapter, “both a snapshot and a bridge” between last moment and the next: this summer, their lead guitarist Jeremiah James said goodbye to focus on his gothy darkwave project, Redder Moon. His slot on the lineup has since been filled by the big, sludgy sounds of guitarist Jen Kean of Crybaby Jones. The new lineup will debut at Hillsiders on Saturday, September 27 with Blanky and Nape Neck, to be followed by a new album titled Upkeep this winter.
RxGhost plays Hillsiders with Blanky and Nape Neck on Saturday, September 27.
