First Listen: Dead Man's Bones' "In The Room Where You Sleep"

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With their psychedelic flourishes, suffocated vocals and lyrics featuring love stores about werewolves, ghosts and other creatures of the night, Dead Man's Bones sound like the demon spawn of the Misfits, Bauhaus and the Zombies. The Los Angeles duo, comprised of actor Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields, release their self-titled debut album on October 6th, and Rolling Stone has your first listen to the ghoulishly infectious track "In the Room Where You Sleep" right here:

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"In the Room Where You Sleep" could fit on either a psych-soaked Nuggets compilation or the soundtrack of a Vincent Price film. For a song that employs no electric guitars — in fact, no stringed instruments appear on the album at all — the track truly rocks. While the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir feature prominently on the duo's debut LP, and early versions of "In the Room Where You Sleep" included the choir, the final version finds Gosling and Shields painting the creepy picture themselves.

Dead Man's Bones came together when Gosling and Shields met in Toronto while dating sisters in 2005. (Fun fact: actress Rachel McAdams and her sis Kayleen.) The pair shared a fascination with ghosts, so they began working on a monster love story for the stage. When that undertaking proved too great, they refocused what they had written and turned it into their debut album. Growing up in Canada, the Langley Schools Music Project — a choir featuring 60 untrained children singing songs of the era — served as a major inspiration for Gosling, and led him to recruit the Silver Lake Conservatory.

When Dead Man's Bones embark on their first tour next month — the trek fittingly kicking off two weeks before Halloween — they will recreate the songs off their self-titled debut by employing a local choir from the cities they visit on their trek. To add to the old-time feel of the performance, each concert will feature a talent show in place of the traditional opening act.

Check out the tour dates below:
Oct. 14 - Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
Oct. 15 - New York, NY @ LPR
Oct. 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
Oct. 17 - Washington, D.C. @ Sixth And I Historic Synagogue
Oct. 19 - Montreal, CA @ Le National
Oct. 20 - Toronto, CA @ The Music Gallery
Oct. 21 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern (two shows)
Oct. 23 - Seattle, WA @ The Triple Door
Oct. 24 - Vancouver, CA @ Venue
Oct. 25 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Oct. 27 - San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
Oct. 30 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

More Song Stories entries »

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