Dead Man's Bones - Lose Your Soul

Ryan Gosling’s new movie “Drive,” is really good. I watched “Drive” the other day, and it was very well directed movie, great pacing, and great mood. I do not know how good a movie critic I would make, then again I am not sure how good of a music critic I am, but regardless I did not bring up “Drive,” because I intended to talk about the movie’s very positive reviews. No, I thought it would be a good segue to introduce Ryan Gosling’s band – Dead Man’s Bones.

A while ago my friend James Craig Carswell recommended the band to me. I went to one of his band’s shows, and despite being exhausted and unable to show my enthusiasm as much as I would have liked, I did enjoy myself. I remember how careful Carswell seemed to me when recommending music, like he was not sure how I would respond, yet he seemed confident that Dead Man’s Bones would be right up my alley.

It was a good recommendation Craig, thank you.

It is both interesting and irrelevant when a musician has a history in another profession, notably acting. Interesting because it gives context to the band’s existence and back story, also it gives credit to the person in question as it indicates they have multiple talents, also irrelevant, because it is.

Dead Man’s Bones consists of Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields. Before we went any further it only seems fair to mention Zach. I don’t know who he is, but I am sure he deserves just as much credit for Dead Man’s Bones as Ryan does.

So far Dead Man’s Bones has only had one album and two music videos from that album. The official music videos for “Pa-pa-Power” and “Dead Hearts” are long, very long. They are artistically made, perhaps overly so, and both are delightfully strange and creepy, but I enjoy simpler things, like a man drawing ghosts, still kudos to them for doing something different. I also really enjoy the songs “Pa-pa-Power,” and “Dead Hearts,” but my favourite song by Dead Man’s Bones has to be “Lose Your Soul.” Following what I just said, I really like the fan made video of “Lose Your Soul,” which is just a man drawing ghosts with pastels.

Maybe it is the video, or maybe it is just me, but “Lose Your Soul,” has a very haunting element to it, very “ghostly.” The echo in Ryan’s voice, the slide on the guitar notes, the children singing background, the theme about losing your soul, it all adds up to be a song fit for a horror movie, and I like that. I would not have expected this kind of music from Gosling, then again I would not have expected much of anything from him musically. This is a very appropriate song as well as video for Halloween, which may well be four weeks away, but still, I do try to be topical.

Dead Man’s Bones should be releasing their second album this year, and that should be something interesting to look into. You know I will be of course.

Until later this month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly