Sonic Youth and the Feelies vs. A Giant Hole of Suck
Sports Redux: One Goal, And One Goal Only
Sunday Happenings
Cyberposium 15 at Harvard Business School
Bostonist saw Ryan Gosling's spooky new band, Dead Man's Bones, with our friend Jill last night. Here's her take on the show (cross-posted at Boston Book Bean).
There's something magical (if also spooky) about a group of kids dressed as ghosts, cherubic faces painted like skeletons, chanting "My body's a zombie for you" over and over, youthful voices bouncing exuberantly from the rafters. Like some fantastical dream, this was the scene at the Middle East Downstairs last night. The low ceilings and dank basement air proved the perfect venue on a chilly October night to groove to the "gothic folk" music of Dead Man's Bones, the Los Angeles band featuring actors Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields.
Though Canadian actor Ryan Gosling began his career starring in such teeny bopper fare as Disney's Mickey Mouse Club and Breaker High, he soon rose to heartthrob status (for The Notebook) and received critical acclaim with his heartbreaking, Academy-Award nominated role as a drug-addicted high school teacher in Half Nelson and his Golden-Globe nominated role in the sweet Lars and the Real Girl. In 2007, Gosling and fellow actor Shields bonded over their common fascination with all things supernatural and decided to channel this obsession into a musical endeavor. They both set out to learn how to play and write music, coming up with songs like "Werewolf Heart" and "Flowers Grow Out of My Grave." After two years of noodling, they had recorded an album, with backup vocals by LA's Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir. Both Shields and Gosling were drawn to using the unique and multi-layered voices of the young, a technique that lends a haunting, ethereal quality to their music.
Last night at the Middle East, the band played its first official show following the release of their debut eponymous album on October 6. The stage was set with a backdrop of a haunted house, a graveyard, strings of glowing white lights, and the aforementioned gang of ghostly kids. We weren't sure what to expect—the band lists among their musical influences The Cure, The Andrews Sisters, Joy Division, and James Brown. The event page had this to say about the band: "The outcome is an artistic aesthetic of old Universal horror films, vaudeville music-hall numbers, and silent-screen melodramas perfect for the month of Halloween."
Though the set was short (about an hour), the music had the sold-out crowd dancing and clapping to the beat, wildly cheering after each song. A request from Ryan Gosling for a match sent a group of blondes scrambling through their purses, eventually surfacing with a lighter. Musical highlights included the raucous "My Body's a Zombie for You" and the dazed "Pa Pa Power."
The band's sound is an oddball mix of doo-wop, gospel, and synthesizer pop that melds into cohesive music you want to listen to year-round. It's vaguely reminiscent of The Arcade Fire, and Gosling's voice is just the right timbre to lend a spooky depth to the lyrics. We know what we'll be playing at the office Halloween party this year.
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