you don't spell it, son. you hear it!

Dead Man’s Bones release an album and go on tour

Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields are actors. Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields decided they wanted to make music together. Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields decided they wanted to write an album about love and the undead. Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields decided they wanted help from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir. Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields released their self-titled debut album Dead Man’s Bones. And you know what? It’s pretty damn good.

Actors-turned-musicians are hit and miss, as are concept albums, so one would expect combining the two would most likely yield a steaming pile of pretentious garbage. But Dead Man’s Bones have somehow managed to make this combination work. Just in time for Halloween, the concept of their album sounds simple enough: love and death. Dead Man’s Bones sample everything from howling winds to shattering glass over ghoulish declarations of love. The small, high-pitched voices of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir paired with Gosling’s low, Nick Cave-esque grumbles add an extra dose of eeriness to songs already morbid in their subject matter (“Buried in Water”, “Lose Your Soul”).

Though the lyrics may be dark, the albums’ overall sound isn’t necessarily all gloom and doom. “My Body’s a Zombie For You” and “Flowers Grow Out of My Grave” prove doo-wop love ballads about the undead can not only be done but they can be pretty damn touching to boot! A synthesizer graces “Pa Pa Power,” a mellower, poppy number that finds Shields taking the lead on vocals and the children sounding more confident than creepy. “Dead Man’s Bones,” the album’s title track, is Gosling and Shields’ raucous party jam. They let loose as they warn of a world surrounded by the dead: “You should know/ What’s really going down below/ Dressed in their best clothes/ There are rows and rows and rows of dead man’s bones!” Sure the anguished cries of a woman are featured midway through the track, but by the time you reach this point on the album you’re no longer phased by such grisly sounds. You’ve been desensitized and you’ve accepted their world of love, pain, zombies, and ghost children. Hell, you expect the anguished cries!

DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN Dead Man’s Bones – My Body’s a Zombie For You
BUY DEAD MAN’S BONES amazon |  amazon digital |  insound |  insound digital

Dead Man’s Bones start their first U.S. tour today in Cambridge, MA. They made this video to remind everyone of the dates:
“>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drccx8_CIHE&feature=player_profilepage]

Most dates are sold out, but catch them if you can. Local children’s choirs will be joining them on stage in each city and “talent shows” will serve as support. I’ll be seeing them in Chicago next Wednesday. It’s gonna be good times.

October 14, 2009 at 10:16 am Leave a comment