Dead Man's Bones

ISSUE #28

This week's playlist isn't really a playlist, it's more of an album showcase. It's my favorite Halloween album ever made. It's called Dead Man's Bones, by a band called Dead Man's Bones. There's even a song called "Dead Man's Bones" on it (it's not often you get the eponymous trifecta—song, album, and band).

It's an album full of surprises, and worth sitting down to listen to all the way through. It was made by two Los Angelenos back in 2009, with the help of the Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir and any instrument they could get their hands on, including the ones they couldn't play yet. In addition to being a straight-up rad concept album of love songs about monsters and ghosts, there are also lot of surprising turns and interesting choices that make this more than just a one-time novelty act. Each song was allowed only three takes to record before they moved on, resulting in a frayed and lived-in final product that's all the more charming for its various flaws. Everyone's having fun here, and they get creative with their soundscapes, perfectly utilizing howling winds, ghostly wails, UFO synths, the breaking of glass, musty old pianos, and, as mentioned earlier, an unearthly choir of children.

I've buried the lead a little, though. One half of the duo is Zach Shields, who, in a very Jeff move, was put into therapy as a kid because he was so preoccupied with ghosts. The other half is his friend, a man who had to move out his childhood home because it was haunted: Ryan Gosling. Yep, Ryan Gosling. They met in 2005 over a mutual love of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Few things have endeared a celebrity to me so completely. Nothing cuts to my heart faster than a handful of songs about werewolves.

But unlike other celebrity projects, which feel like out-of-touch vanity projects more often than not, this one is lively, off-beat, and full of energy. He keeps his image out of the spotlight for this album, preferring to be credited as "Baby Goose". He leaves the songs to do the heavy-lifting, rather than his status as fame-o. He's got a pretty nice croon, too!

I've put some songs from this album on my other Earwyrms playlists, but I couldn't help it, I had to just take the season to promote the whole thing. It's all I listen to for a month. Everybody should know about this album—no better time to put it on than when the twilight veil between the living and the dead is so gossamer thin.

Have a happy Halloween!