Dead Man's Bones featuring. the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir (Anti Records).
A music project by an actor, featuring a children's choir should, by all expectations, be a tragic folly, at least for those of us still shaking off the bitter memory of Scarlett Johansson's flat delivery over Dave Sitek's baroque backdrops, on Anywhere I Lay My Head. It's a surprise then that Dead Man's Bones works so well as a macabre cabaret, and on repeat listens easily transcends its "made for Halloween" category.
Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Fracture) met fellow Canadian actor Zach Shields, when they were dating sisters Rachel and Kayleen McAdams, and bonded over a love of The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland and a childhood love of monsters and spooks. Originally created as a stage play monster/ghost/love story, this idea was abandoned due to cost, but the two continued with the music, employing a low-fi aesthetic, and bringing in producer Tim Anderson (of artfully weird synth act Ima Robot), and the children of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, an LA-based non-profit, co-founded by Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The result (released today on CD, and October 20th on vinyl) is a delightfully shambolic mash-up of the Langley Schools Music Project, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Polyphonic Spree (weren't they always a bit scary), and Bobby Pickett, with song titles like "My Body's a Zombie for You" and "Flowers Grow Out of My Grave" and lyrics about broken-hearted werewolves and dark things in bedroom corners. The duo embrace their lack of finesse (neither were really musicians prior to making the album, though Gosling had one song on the soundtrack of Lars and the Real Girl), deliberately limiting the number of takes on each song and clearly having a great time making a scary album – the joyful coda to "My Body's…" has the children repeatedly shouting "I'm a Z. O. M. B. I. E. Zombie!", and it's impossible not to smile.
There are also some genuinely unsettling moments here - "Young and Tragic", and the weeping middle eight in the title track are particularly effective – so make this your Halloween music of choice, and if you live in LA, get tickets for the Halloweenbaloo benefit at the Silverlake Conservatory, or check out the band's website for their tour dates, which appropriately run from October 14th to 30th, and features a local children's choir in each city, with a talent show as support.
Press Reviews
"Dead Man's Bones turns out to be a decidedly beautiful thing" - Mojo
"A masterful album" - Filter
"ghoulishly infectious" - Rolling Stone
"downright eerie… a really interesting debut album." - Entertainment Weekly
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