I have been intrigued by this band for a little while now, probably because of their weird name, Dead Man’s Bones, and their borderline creepy videos, that always seem to have a connection with death and old age.
Their first album was released on October 6, 2009 with the collaboration of the children’s choir of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, which was founded by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and has the very good mission to provide music education at a low cost.
The fact that actor Ryan Gosling and his friend Zach Shields are both frontmen of the band may be another of the surprising things about Dead Man’s Bones, because actors who suddenly decide to become musicians are not always good news, but there are exceptions.
In ‘Name in Stone’, they perform in a LA cemetery with the LA inner Mass Choir and the kids from the Silverlake Conservatory dressed up in Halloween costumes. The song starts slowly with just an acoustic guitar and a voice and suddenly becomes a cheerful ceremony rock number, handclapping-gospel-like choir, the whole thing splitting itself between sadness and life celebration.
‘In The Room Where You Sleep’ highlights the voices of the children’s choir over an old-style piano and the violent drum beats which are so powerful altogether, it will give you chills like an old Tom Waits’ song (it must be the creepiness of the piano) sung by young voices.
‘Pa Pa Power’ is filmed in a very unusual place for a music video, an assisted living place where the band comes performing to awake the old souls, and ‘Dead Hearts’ features a Tim Burton-esque semi-bike-machine pulled by a wishbone slowly going through modeled life vignettes till death.
Be careful, all of this is depressing, tearful, macabre and death-obsessed, some may also find it too melodramatic, but it is also totally haunting, it will paint in your memories landscapes of creepiness and weirdness, borderline nightmarish at times, but also filled with clusters of hope, love and blatant honesty.
I like the fact that Ryan Gosling never put himself center stage, and my curiosity about the band will soon be satisfied, as I will try to catch their performance at the FYF fest this Saturday.
Watch ‘Name in Stone’:
Watch ‘In The Room Where You Sleep’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRFeUc2KnBY&feature=related
Watch Pa Pa Power’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwfzKOeMT6A
Watch ‘Dead Hearts’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpYwHfB7eds&feature=fvw