"Revolution Evolution" and Love Ghost - Music

Finnegan Bell, lead vocalist and musician for Love Ghost.

Love Ghost is a modern rock & roll band from Los Angeles, CA. This is both a compliment and a curse, since there are one million rock & roll bands in Los Angeles, so it's a little difficult to get noticed. The band stands out thanks to that rare blend of edgy realism, musical talent and a unique cool. Some got it, others don't. They do. Other publications like Rolling Stone think so too. 

I've learned to hate comparing modern bands to others before them, even though it's complimentary and inevitable. Love Ghost reminds one of good bands that were difficult to classify, like Killing Joke, Alice & Chains, Metallica, Black Market Baby, Suicidal Tendencies, Skinny Puppy, Guns and Roses, Nirvana, KMFDM and even The Swans. Finnegan Bell is writing music that will be appreciated by people who like the bands just mentioned and music that's independent without being noise.

Ladies, gentlemen and monsters, behold Love Ghost.

The song and music video for "Revolution Evolution" is gritty, ominous and powerful, full of imagery that doesn't celebrate war as it highlights the chaos it embodies. Marching drums, grinding guitars, harsh vocals and evocative pauses make the song a thinking one. After all, war is destruction, and revolution is just another war. The lyrics aren't mere antiwar poetry. It's not a manifesto, either. Thinking is required. The nuance is subtle.

For the next twenty paragraphs we are going to talk about why the music video discussed is a proper literary work of art that is related to the many great music videos MTV was so famous for decades ago. It's going to get like college or some literary publication as I reference everything known to prove Love Ghost filmed a winner. If you are not interested, please scroll to where you see the IMDb picture of Finnegan.

...

"Land of Confusion" by Genesis. It was the 80's.

It's sad that many Americans do not remember the 80's, because they weren't there. I was. Imagine a chaotic, dangerous time. The conservative politicians running the show were seen as war hawks devouring U.S.A. tax dollars for wars in Latin American and The Middle East at the risk of starting a global thermonuclear war while the economy declined. Many average, middle class people living in America did not trust their government. Wow, so much has changed! We have smartphones!

Now it's 2020, and there are more music videos for songs composed by bands than there are stars in the sky, especially if you live in Los Angeles where the smog and light pollution obliterates any astronomy. I love music videos! Especially this one! "Revolution Evolution" by Love Ghost is a masterpiece and a piece of a masterful class of art Americans should all appreciate: the art of the music video. 

A surreal, creepy visual from "Revolution Evolution."

There was a time when music videos were precious pearls, as rare as peace in The Middle East has been for millenia. Ok, not that rare. I mean, music videos did exist, they were just hard to find because there was no way to watch them predictably. They showed up randomly on TV, usually late at night, and anyone who saw it was probably confused. Then God created MTV. I remember.

Check out early music videos by one of my favorite music bands, The Blue Oyster Cult. (I'm not going to type that .. above the O, I got screenplays to write). What drugs were those guys on? You get the feeling watching many early videos that the band, the director and the people who designed the images weren't on the same page, or book, or planet where that library was on. "Revolution Evolution" is perfect in that all of the music, words and art fit. "Loverboy," by Billy Ocean, is not.

The music videos made by Blue Oyster Cult were crazy before MTV.

Watch "Revolution Evolution" and think about what you just experienced. It all makes sense, right? There were surprises and perspectives to think about. Dramatic, revolutionary, guerrilla warfare type imagery. That's good work. The 80's had music videos very similar to that on MTV. It's why the channel was so smart, appreciated and post punk rock. They were completely out of f*cks, so they gave none.

Now watch "Loverboy" by Billy Ocean. The song doesn't fit the imagery. A soulful, romantic ballad about love, juxtaposed by a large, bipedal humanoid medieval iguana person riding a horse, getting into lasergun fights in caves with cyborgs until he saves a Neanderthal woman and they escape. Plus Billy Ocean dancing by himself and terrible CGI. Blame it on the 80's STAR WARS and cocaine. 

Yes, this is a scene from the video "Loverboy." 

Yes, that hazy, dusty air is from cocaine.

Holy lizardman lasers, Batman!

"Billy Don't You Lose My Number" by Phil Collins makes fun of the idea that music videos can be about anything. Great humor is placed in how even Phil is baffled by what he had to do for the music producers with big visions and bigger budgets. No matter what, as a young child watching Phil dressed like a samurai fighting ninjas will still be the movie my soul wanted, and the Old West gunfighter intro is good directing and cinematography, even though the song "Billy Don't You Lose My Number" doesn't make sense. Again, it was the 80's....blame it on movies, cocaine and MTV.

From "Billy Don't You Lose My Number," by Phil Collins.

I always wanted to watch the western from this music video.

Now wonder she lost his number. Whoever imagined this 

all for a song based on her was obviously a schizophrenic.

Although really bad music videos from the 80's can be so nuts they are comedy (the video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler is what happens when somebody other than the artist gets to do whatever they want in a mansion...you can't believe they zany visuals they concocted, thanks to cocaine, Reaganomics and MTV) my favorite will always by "You Could Be Mine" by Guns & Roses from the TERMINATOR II soundtrack. 

You are witnessing the artistic/scientific zenith of modern Earth civilization.

Great visuals. Awesome juxtaposition of music, emotion, live performances by the band and clips from the film. However...the lyrics don't have anything whatsoever to do with the visuals. Yeah, I barbecued a sacred cow. Seriously, would you watch a video about a man abusing and leaving his girlfriends? Nope. It would be kind of funny to see a mean, ugly attorney bugging his eyes out and screaming on the phone while Axl screams/sings, "Don't forget to call my lawyer with your ridiculous demands," but instead you see a T-800 punch a hole through somebody's face.

If you'd like to see something that also expands your paradigm, like Finnegan does, to think about what you are seeing when listening to a song and watching a music video, check out the epic classic "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey. It's a music video about making a music video about making a music video. How many fourth walls did they have to break? 

The fake interview inside the music video for "Easy Lover."

Love Ghost is a band with musical influences from the 90's, a decade where MTV got so massive it split into two parts, VHS (easy listening and 70's light pop), and MTV, which began to go beyond music videos into shows. We all know what happened. "Revolution Evolution" has a harsh, surreal quality I saw in music videos during that time. There's even references to Greek philosophy. Plato's allegory of The Cave, combined with a military punk rock fashion aesthetic Darbie Crash or The Clash could appreciate. 

Darbie Crash, punk rock icon, and probably

the only reason I'm still here.

To me, music videos are a chance to be REALLY BIG. The 80's and 90's were all about that. While the ones you saw in the 70's were usually just live performances, later decades brought us art like "Word Up" by Cameo, where a man with a mustache, a red leather codpiece (aww...it's so nice, as a writer, to be able to type, "red letter codpiece") and a very direct stare could make even Geordi La Forge from "Star Trek, The Next Generation" dance instead of arresting Cameo. What is your crime, sir? Is Geordi on the holodeck role playing as The Fashion Police?

For some moments in life, there are no words. Only screams.

Another example of a REALLY BIG music video is "Shadows of the Night" by Pat Benetar. Similar to "No More Words" by Berlin, there's a storyline taken from vintage American gangster and World War II films. It's all vintage MTV music video art, although Pat Benetar really could have not repeated the chorus so much. Lady, we get it. You are running through the shadows of the night. Ok.

Both music videos are miniature films, although Benetar gets to fight Nazis while Berlin is a Roaring 20's era gangster. Both are what MTV embodied...rebellious, antinazi, epic and inspirational. 

Pat Benetar bombing Nazis to death on MTV.

Another favorite, also by Pat Benetar is "Invincible" from THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN soundtrack. It's a perfect fusion of MTV video art, combining Pat Benetar performing with her band in a post apocalyptic wasteland (in the 80's, many music videos absolutely promised that if America was nuked, cool would survive, like "Synchronicity" by The Police and "Wild Boys" by Duran Duran...yet we survived) with footage from the film. It tells a story through good editing, and possibly the fact that Benetar's head looks like a giant strawberry.

"Wild Boys" by Duran Duran. Just another day 

in the life on MTV during the 80's. 

"Revolution Evolution" is big, in an intellectual way. Lot's of themes like transcendence, breaking the fourth wall and out of the mainstream media paradigm, which is what punk rock is all about. The song is about thinking, not mindless acceptance. We live in an age of multimedia corruption, conspiracy theories and unprecedented online mass media influence. It's profound of Finnegan to remind us.

Again, the music videos I loved growing up in the 80's demonstrated this same spirit. While Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was really, really big (the whole continent of America tuned in to watch that video and it was worth it!) my favorite songs on MTV featured Finnegan's same revolutionary awareness, especially post punk videos like "Sweet Dreams" by The Eurythmics ("Even if you sell out you serve larger forces and can never not be controlled while influencing humanity").

"Sweet Dreams" by The Eurythmics. Not crazy at all. Nope.

"Cult of Personality" by Living Colour ("Just like the title says, plus religion and mass media, corporate control") "It's a Mistake" by Men At Work ("Any American war is bad, leading to potential world annihilation via mutually assured destruction via thermonuclear missiles").

"Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. It was edgy before edgy.

But wait, there's more. "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash ("Peace in The Middle East, at least in an 80's music video") and, of course, my favorite, really big, intellectual, very 80's, cocaine fueled multimedia music video of all time, "Land of Confusion" by Genesis (I can't even describe it all with a joke. Watch that video, too. Ronald Reagan nukes the planet by pushing a big red button. It also criticizes politics, religion, the news and multimedia influence that's obviously unhealthy to humanity. Vintage, my friend).

From "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. I told you it was edgy.

After listening to Love Ghost, many of the other music bands I appreciate from the 90's came to mind, although Finnegan and his band are certainly modern and innovative enough by themselves to have no need for references. Personally, I love Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Helmet, Pantera, industrial music like Nine Inch Nails, Godflesh, Skinny Puppy and Oghr. So of course I liked the song "Revolution Evolution," although it's more rock & roll than synthetics & special effects.

The artist and musician named Finnegan Bell of Love Ghost.

Which brings us to the interview. Thank you for being patient. I just wanted readers to understand why "Revolution Evolution" by Love Ghost is a very real piece of art worth appreciating, which MTV in it's prime would have displayed 24/7. So let's read what Finnegan had to say about Love Ghost, his modern music and artistic style.

What inspired you to become a musician? You are smart enough to do anything. Why choose music?

I didn't choose music because I thought it was the smartest option, I chose it because it was the only thing that didn't make me feel numb. Everything else felt like I was auditioning for a life I didn't actually want. Music was the place where I didn't have to pretend to be okay or impressive or stable.

Tour dates for Love Ghost. Now you know where to go!

It's less of a career choice and more of a survival mechanism. Some people go to church, I make loud, emotional songs and hope it translates. Music is the one thing I can't walk away from without feeling like I'm abandoning something real.

I love the influences in your music, especially in the song "Revolution Evolution" and the video created for it. What music do you listen to, that your fans would not expect?

I listen to a lot of what I jokingly call, "Drunk Girl Music," I don't even know exactly what that means or if that's appropriate to say, but like that 2000's Kesha, Britney Spears, and Katy Perry. That party music that's kind of glittery, chaotic and unhinged in a fun way. I also listen to political music, like the national anthem for the U.S.S.R.  and Saddam Hussein's birthday track, "Leymouni." 

Not because I agree with any of it, but because I'm fascinated by the emotion and scale and how music and sound can be used to unify people or create a sense of power. I think my taste lives somewhere between those two extremes, total escapism and total control, and I like pulling from both.

"Eighties," by Killing Joke, a music video produced

during the 80's about living in the 80's. NOW 

you know why I was inspired to write about 

"Revolution Evolution" by Love Ghost.

Your video for "Revolution Evolution" is Zen in it's inspiration, with a lot of visual depth and MTV 80's-90's Golden Era imagery plus aesthetics. The trick at the end was so cool it made me LOL. What inspired you to imagine the concept for the video?

The concept is about how war turns people into objects for someone else's agenda. I'm tearing soldiers apart and putting them back together like they're disposable, because in reality, to the people making the decisions, they often are. It's not heroic. It's mechanical.

When the soldiers rise up together, it's not some feel-good unity moment, it's more like they realize they were never really enemies, just directed at each other by "something" bigger.

Finnegan Bell from "Revolution Evolution"

by Love Ghost. A modern postpunk rock look

even Darbie Crash could appreciate.

That "something" is power, governments, corporations, and systems that benefit from conflict continuing. It overlaps with capitalism, for sure, especially when profits get tied into just one label. It's any structure where power concentrates and people become expendable to maintain it. That could be imperialism, ethnocentric nationalism, and more. 

(Spoiler alert...you've been warned) Then, at the very end, I'm revealed to be a toy, too. That's the point, there's no clean outside perspective. Even if you think you're calling it out, you're still inside the same system, shaped by it. Some people just have longer strings than others.

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Check out their swank music video for "Revolution Evolution" down below!