November 11, 2009

The 'Gum Drop CXIV: Hear New That Ghost, Win A USB Turntable & Zeppelin Bio

thubmnail icon: The 'Gum Drop CXIV: Hear New That Ghost, Win A USB Turntable & Zeppelin Bio

As we've mentioned, 19-year-old Santa Rosa multi-instrumentalist Ryan Schmale approaches That Ghost's fuzzy, spacious pop in a way that reminds us more of vintage garage rockers and Robert Pollard than he does his lo-fi peers. See, for instance, "Shouldn't Leave The Estate," a song from the forthcoming Get It And Get Out EP (11/17, twosyllable) that premiered in this week's Drop. Schmale told us about the isolation and agoraphobia that inspired the track. You can read his thoughts on it while you take a listen, hopefully from the safety of your home.

In this week's Drop we also offered the chance to win a USB Turntable and the Led Zeppelin biography When Giants Walked The Earth.

One Grand Prize winner gets a Stanton USB Turntable and a copy of Mick Wall's Led Zeppelin biography When Giants Walked The Earth (to read while you're uploading your old records). Three Runner Ups walk home with a copy of the book. Here's the turntable, which allows you to easily transfer vinyl to your Mac or PC.

And, speaking of preserving the classics, here's more on the book:

Veteran rock journalist Mick Wall unflinchingly tells the story of the band that pushed the envelope on both creativity and excess, even by rock 'n' roll standards. Led Zeppelin was the last great band of the 1960s and the first great band of the 1970s--and When Giants Walked the Earth is the full, enthralling story of Zep from the inside, written by a former associate of both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Rich and revealing, it bores into not only the disaster, addiction and death that haunted the band but also into the real relationship between Page and Plant, including how it was influenced by Page's interest in the occult. Comprehensive and yet intimately detailed, When Giants Walked the Earth literally gets into the principals' heads to bring to life both an unforgettable band and an unrepeatable slice of rock history.

Wall also wrote St. Martin's biography of Axl Rose. You find more info on When Giants Walked The Earth at St. Martin's Press. You'll find it for sale at Amazon, B&N, Books-A-Million, Borders, IndieBound, etc. You can enter to win it, along with the USB turntable, here. (You have a few more days to win a ZT Lunchbox Amplifier, too.)