Dead Man’s Bones
Ryan Gosling and cohort Zach Shields have formed a band. It is called Dead Man’s Bones and their self-titled debut sounds something like Patrick Wolf on quaaludes. Or like Black Heart Procession on speed. Or both.
However, there is something interesting about a prim and proper (see The Notebook) and talented (see Fracture) actor joining forces with his long-time friend to make such a macabre, off-kilter album like this. Although I suppose he was the star in the twisted Lars and the Real Girl, so perhaps this shouldn’t be so suprising.
Much of the LP consists of sloppily played instruments arranged in catchy yet morose ways. There are the occasional up-tempo moments, but it is the eerily-choral murder ballad which serves as the album’s mantlepiece time and again.
It is the omnipresence of a zombie-like children’s choir, however, singing lines like: “Like a lamb to the slaughter, buried in water,” and “My body’s a zombie for you,” that raised my eyebrows with intrigue. It only helps to see press materials of this children’s choir dressed like an army of Charles Manson’s children going out to accost the neighborhood in their Halloween costumes (see above).
Perhaps this album represents the way Gosling remembers his time spent at the Mickey Mouse Club as a child? I would completely get it if that was the case.
Enjoy this Youtube clip, and check out their Myspace page to get a tasty preview of what should be a fairly successful debut offering.
