NAKATOMI PLAZA – Ghosts

After a 10-year career, Brooklyn indie/punk rockers Nakatomi Plaza are hanging up the towel. In conjunction with their demise they’ve released one last album, ironically titled Ghosts. The album serves as a sort of Viking burial for the band, casting off 11 tracks of pop-punk and post-hardcore to burn into the ocean.

Between the late ‘90s and early ’00s, the surge of this style of music has gone up and down like an EKG meter. Part of the reason for that is the aesthetic just doesn’t cling to everyone, which a lot of the time was the basis of its appeal. Bands like NOFX, Thrice, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Promise Ring, and Dead Poetic have had their fan bases and they’ve been loyal, but there’s always seemed to be a plateau of interest when it comes to the word getting out about a style that blends garage rock, punk elements, and hardcore and metal structures. Ghosts fits into this category like a peg in the dirt. If the style described is not to your liking then the album just isn’t for you. Fans of the genre, however, will be taking out iPods left and right to blast the musical tombstone to their friends whenever possible.

Upon listening to the album, you get the impression that Nakatomi Plaza have a desire to play the music they like to hear without pandering to a specific trend, leaving out a decent amount of effort or blatantly ripping off other bands’ styles and techniques. It’s just a sound that fits into a form that best reaches those who seek it out.

If the members of Nakatomi Plaza plan on branching out into different musical styles, this album is a great way to leave old habits behind. They clearly have the talent to keep making music, but I have a feeling this style is starting to be destined to fade into obscurity. If you like sticking to the relics, than stick to this. Otherwise keep moving, this watering hole ain’t for you.

(self-released, no address provided)