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Garage rocker Olivia Jean has shared “Raving Ghost,” the title track of her third solo album arriving via Nashville’s Third Man Records on Friday, May 5. The track is accompanied by an official music video directed by Olivia Jean herself alongside Erica Salazar, a perfect complement to the slinking, noirish quality of the music. (watch above)
Produced by Olivia Jean at Los Angeles’ famed Valentine Recording Studios and Third Man Recording Studio in her home base of Nashville, Raving Ghost has been met with early excitement from fans.
Olivia Jean has also announced an extensive headline U.S. tour, which includes a stop at The Blue Room on May 5 here in Nashville.
Raving Ghost is an album populated by mysterious characters in various states of danger – cursed lovers, doomed souls, women deliriously haunted by unseen forces. Over the course of its 11 tracks, Olivia Jean amplifies that drama with her wildly melodic take on garage rock, handling each riff with the power and precision she’s previously shown as a member of the Black Belles and as an in-demand session/touring musician. Featuring backing from such top musicians as My Morning Jacket keyboardist Bo Koster, Jellyfish co-founder Roger Joseph Manning Jr, and drummers Carla Azar (T-Bone Burnett, Nikki Lane) and Patrick Keeler (The Raconteurs, The Afghan Whigs), songs such as the serpentine title track and a frenetic cover of Enya’s classic “Orinoco Flow” stand tall as a feverish collision of goth-punk, power-pop, and classic garage, charged with an energy so intense that the speakers to several of Valentine Recording Studios’ vintage amps ended up blowing out during the sessions. A stunning evolution of the retro-surf sound featured on Olivia Jean’s critically acclaimed past solo work, Raving Ghost ultimately proves the most magnificently heavy and mesmerizing output yet from an endlessly fascinating artist.
Growing up on the outskirts of Detroit, Olivia Jean found her first musical love in 1960’s instrumental surf bands. Taking up guitar at an early age, she soon became enamored by Detroit’s thriving garage rock scene, drawing inspiration from its unique rawness. As a teenager, Olivia began recording her own original instrumental surf music. After years of self-recording, she put together a demo that soon led to the co-founding of the Black Belles and the band’s signing to Third Man Records. Olivia Jean followed the release of the Black Belles’ self-titled 2011 debut album with her own first full-length, 2014’s Bathtub Love Killings, returning in 2019 with her self-produced sophomore album, Night Owl.
Olivia Jean will celebrate Raving Ghost with a wide-ranging live schedule set to include headline dates, festival appearances, and more. Highlights include a set at Atlanta, GA’s Shaky Knees Music Festival, slated for Saturday, May 6.
