dull gold heart

I’ve had a note to write about this song for quite a while now.

It started from a couple months back, a friend tipped me to this 3-piece from Southamtpon by inviting me to a showcase at the Bovine. I wasn’t able to attend, but spent a while with the e-card, streaming songs from the debut Baby Darling Doll Face Honey. Like all the music on links that I keep checking, the mp3s finally made it to my iPod for future listening. Probably about a few weeks later, after many enjoyable listens through the album, I was driving and Dull Gold Heart came on.

I didn’t drive off the road, merely forgot about it. My head titled right, as if to listen harder. Something about the song really grabbed me. It starts creeping on you right from the beginning, from when singers Russell Marsden (guitar & vocals) and Emma Richardson (bass & vocals) chant Shut…. In… The…. Dark…. I…. Wait….. For….. Your…..Dull…. Gold…. Heart…. I…. Wait… Then the song starts a build, and soon somewhat out of nowhere, a distinctive distorted guitar lick takes over. Playing in thirds to the drums in 4/4, the vocals bring back in the chant. Take a listen.

Dull Gold Heart – Band Of Skulls

[audio:DullGoldHeart.mp3]

Fast forward to NXNE. I attended the Music Supervision panel at the Rivoli on Friday, where 4 music supervisors from Los Angeles were given the task of choosing a song (within the fictional indie budget they had to work with) to serve as the background for a scene from the upcoming Canadian film Leslie, My Name Is Evil (New Real Films). After each clip was viewed, each supervisor talked about their choice of song and why they thought it worked for the scene. Try this trailer to get an idea of the film. The scene depicted two girls going into a house, tieing up a male and female, then murdering them with a kitchen knife. Pretty guesome scene. The scene ends with the main character repeatidly stabbing a victim in the back, getting covered in blood and essentially ‘learning to kill’.

All of the supervisors presented great songs as options for this scene. But, from the reaction of the table of people I was sitting with, John Bissell‘s (of Mothlight Music, supervises the show Ugly Betty) submission of… yup… Dull Gold Heart by Band of Skulls won the competition (if it was a competition). Dark enough to work with a gruesome murder. Classic sounding enough to fit the characters, time and setting. And unique enough to stand out and advance the scene.

Near the end of the panel, we heard from the director (Reg Harkema) and music supervisor (Cindy Wolfe) of the film. They played the scene as it is in the movie, scored with ‘Black Grease‘ by The Black Angels. The scene was essentially cut with this song in mind so it works perfectly; the lyrics ‘Kill….kill….killl’ repeating as the main character repeatidly stabs her victim.

Pretty cool panel indeed.

So for fans of The Black Keys, BRMC, Jefferson Airplane and guesome murder scenes, check out this bands debut. Its good cover to cover. Live, they’re doing dates as we speak. I missed them three times now, but hopefully they’ll come back to Toronto soon. Something to note, Chart said they were the best live band at NXNE.