Phantom Planet is a Los Angeles-based alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by formed by Alex Greenwald on guitar, and lead vocals, Sam Farrar on bass, Darren Robinson on lead guitar, Jason Schwartzman on the drums and Jacques Brautbar on guitar. Schwartzman stepped down from the band during the production of the Self-Titled Album in order to pursue his acting career, being replaced by Jeff Conrad, and Brautbar quit shortly after the album's release.
The band released four albums during their initial run as a band, 1998's Phantom Planet Is Missing to 2008's Raise the Dead. The average listener might recognize their song "California" from their sophomore album The Guest, which was used as the theme song for the series The O.C.. The band took a hiatus by the end of 2008, having a one-off reunion in 2012 before properly reuniting in 2019 to record their fifth album Devastator, which was released in mid-2020.
They're not to be confused with the series finale of Danny Phantom.
Discography
- Phantom Planet Is Missing (1998)
- The Guest (2002)
- Phantom Planet (2004)
- Raise the Dead (2008)
- Devastator (2020)
Compilations
- Negatives (2006)
- Negatives 2 (2006)
Live
- Live at The Troubadour (2003)
- Bootleg! Live 2004 (2004)
Tropes
- Alliterative Name: Phantom Planet.
- Alliterative Title: "Badd Business", "Big Brat", "Demon Daughters" and "Through the Trees".
- Break Up Song: Devastator is this as a whole.
- Cut Short: "One Ray of Sunshine" does a fake ending outro right before it gets cut abruptly and transitions to "Anthem".
- Dance-Punk: The funky "Too Much, Too Often" from Raise the Dead is pretty much this to a tee.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The cover art of The Guest.
- Design Student's Orgasm: The cover art of their self-titled album, especially after the previous albums had the band on the cover. The album covers of the two Negatives compilations also are this.
- Face on the Cover: Their first albums Phantom Planet Is Missing and The Guest. Raise the Dead is an interesting example, as it has Alex being duct taped into the wall.
- Fading into the Next Song: The band loves to do this a lot.
- Phantom Planet Is Missing: "Lisa (Does It Hurt You?)" → "Rest Easy";
- The Guest:
- "One Ray of Sunshine" → "Anthem";
- "Nobody's Fault" → "All Over Again" → "Wishing Well" → "Something Is Wrong";
- Phantom Planet: "The Happy Ending" → "Badd Business" → "Big Brat" → "1st Things 1st" → "Making a Killing";
- Raise the Dead:
- "Raise the Dead" → "Dropped";
- "Do the Panic" → "Quarantine" → "Ship Lost at Sea" → "Demon Daughters" → "Geronimo" → "Too Much, Too Often".
- Hidden Track: After the end of "I Don't Mind", a small keyboard coda plays before it fades out.
- Location Song: Take a guess...
- Lyrical Cold Open: "So I Fall Again", "Recently Distressed", "Lonely Day", "One Ray of Sunlight", "Nobody's Fault" and "Dear Dead End".
- Miniscule Rocking: A few of their songs in their Negatives compilations are this, mostly stemming from them being outtakes and goof offs. Examples include: "To Be Taken Seriously" (1:39), "Cross Eyes" (0:42), "Don't Cry Erika" (1:52), "Empty House" (1:23), "God Must Have Put Your Heart in Wrong" (1:01), "It's Over" (1:25), "Alpine Romance" (0:59), "Come Back to Your Tomb" (0:43), "March of the Spiders" (1:38), "Best Band" (0:19) and "The Snake" (0:18).
- New Sound Album: Their self-titled drops their 60's-inspired power pop of their first two albums in favor of a darker garage rock-oriented sound, akin to bands like The Strokes and The Hives.
- The comeback album Devastator is a small return to the sound from the indie pop sound of the first two albums, while expanding on the use of drum machines and sampling that were sparsely used previously. The album is also more melancholic than the previous outings.
- Precision F-Strike: "So I Fall Again" by the first line of the second chorus.
- Portmantitle: "Knowitall", "Jabberjaw".
- Self-Titled Album: They have one subversion, Phantom Planet Is Missing, and one straight example.
- Shout-Out: Their name was taken from the 1961 Science Fiction film The Phantom Planet.
- Studio Chatter:
- Some steps and a random voice can be heard in the last few seconds of "Something Is Wrong";
- "Confess" ends with Alex briefly laughing out loud.
- Title Track: "Raise the Dead". Oddly subverted with The Guest, since the title track didn't appear on the proper album, being instead relegated to a B-Side in the "California" single and later being released in the deluxe edition of the album and their outtakes compilation Negatives 2.
