Just when I thought Ryan Gosling couldn’t get any sexier. Well, he’s in a band now. Not just any band – a duo with his best friend (and sister’s ex-boyfriend) Zach Shields called Dead Man’s Bones featuring, throughout the entire album, the Silverdale Conservatory Children’s Choir.
The result: songs with titles like “My Body is a Zombie for You” (the chorus of which is shouted by the aforementioned children), set to ominous piano-folk and the Roy Orbison-esque voice of Gosling. The mood is something like the Billy the Kid scene from I’m Not There, and if that reference is too obscure, let’s just call it Halloween. In the video for the band’s first single, “In the Room Where You Sleep”, the choir is outfitted in an array of costumes from skeleton to pirate to ghost.
Gosling has clearly gotten into character yet again – he and Shields created their own label, Werewolf Heart, that will release the debut Never Let a Lack of Talent Get You Down this summer. (Werewolf Heart has also taken on upcoming releases from Ima Robot and The Goat.) And just this week, Dead Man’s Bones announced plans for a North American tour in October, with stops in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and will include a local talent show before each performance.
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Blogs, Under The Rock Tags:
andpop,
Chunk of Change,
Michael Angelakos,
Moth's Wings,
new band,
new music,
Ottawa,
Passion Pit,
Sleepyhead,
The Reeling,
Under The Rock,
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Passion Pit are a lesson in modern romance. Ever since I heard their backstory – lead singer Michael Angelakos crafted the EP Chunk of Change as a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend – I knew they would be more to me than just a fling in my musical lifetime. But I never imagined my first close encounter with them would pan out like a fairy tale of its own.
The show was sold out when my companion (I’ll call her Merv) and I arrived at Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ottawa’s go-to live music club. It was shocking enough that a band this sought-after detoured so far into Canada, and even more surprising that the resident’s of Ottawa had enough forethought to buy advance tickets. Not about to give up on our night, Merv and I stuck it out in line until a lush pair of hipsters were escorted from the premises, freeing up some elbow room for the two of us.
The timing could hardly have been more perfect: Passion Pit hit the stage the moment Merv and I were safely inside. They played “Moth’s Wings” and “The Reeling”, and captured the layered essence of their recordings by cramming the stage with a drum kit, synthesizers and more than one stringed instrument. Angelakos sauntered about the clutter, exuding a sort of romantic sex appeal that comes only from a hairy-chested twenty-something singing love songs in falsetto. He hardly spoke a word to the crowd until he announced the last song, “Sleepyhead”, and yet the crowd was hanging on every pulse of the music.
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It’s been a long time since I’ve purchased a brand new album on a whim. As a student, I have little disposable income so you had better believe I expect purchases such as this to pay off.
Well, my friends, I may have hit the proverbial jackpot. In the last two weeks or so, I’ve been carelessly shelling out my rent money for records, yet the return turned out to mean more to me than a roof over my head.
My purchases?
Regina Spektor’s Far. Manchester Orchestra’s Everything to Nothing. Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest.
It wasn’t planned in advance, I didn’t wait in line outside the doors of HMV the day Grizzly Bear’s third album was released, and I actually didn’t even know Regina had been in the studio. As for Manchester Orchestra, it was more peer pressure that led me to buy it. Peer pressure and a steal of a deal at Sonic Boom.
The moral of the story, though, is the pleasant surprise that quickly followed the first few listens of each.
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Get ready for a new sound from Norah Jones.
Jones’ indie rock band, El Madmo, has just been signed to the label Team Love. According to Exclaim!, the band will be releasing an album on May 20.
Jones adopts a pseudonym and blonde wig when performing with the El Madmo. On their MySpace, the band has written this colourful description of themselves: Born of social ineptitude and an ageless belief in trick-or-treatery, EL MADMO offers escape, justice, karmic postulation, and that feeling you get when you know something that no one else does. Starting out as a garage band trapped in the basements of various hockey arenas, their is a powerfully raw sound that could only be inspired by the smell of Zamboni fuel and sweaty skates. The band consists of guitarist/singer, Maddie, bassist/singer, El, and majestically afroed drummer, Mo. Their self-titled debut album is a solid piece of body rocking ear-munition revealing a musical labyrinth that challenges you to, “Choose your own adventure.” From the Aeolian darkness of “Vampire Guy”, to the sassy cha-cha of “Fantasy Guy”, to a song that simply asks, “What good is a smile when your head’s in a vise?”, EL MADMO serves up a hot and tasty meal that’ll fill you up and also “Rock Yer Balls Off.”
Fans can listen to three tracks at MySpace.com/elmadmo.
