I coulda sworn I heard cheering when Johnny fell off the cliff

Last week saw the DVD release of The O.C.: The Complete Third Season, and in anticipation of Thursday night's season premiere, here's a quick rundown on the music from last season and what to expect this season.

Playlist: The O.C. - Season 3

For the third season, the music took some interesting turns, including the incorporation of some legends of Post-Punk, a genre that historically has shied away from consumer driven products (like The O.C.) First off, Bob Mould (Husker Du) let his song "Circles" get chopped up to use to back Marissa's dramatic moments for an episode (3.04,) which isn't that weird when you consider Mould took a break from music a few years ago to write professional wresting scripts (gasp! Pro wrestling is scripted?) Later in the season Gang of Four contributed their song "I Love a Man in Uniform" (episode 3.11) and then Black Flag got into the act with "Wasted" (for episode 3.13.)

The Peach Pit... er... I mean Bait Shop only had two musical guest performances, coming from The Subways and the wonderfully eccentric Tom Vek (no word yet on who's going to be stopping by this season.) Elsewhere Rogue Wave became a sort of 'series band' contributing four songs (over four episodes) and the annual funeral music moment this year (Johnny's funeral) was backed by Sufjan Steven's beautiful (and long-titled) "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti."

For the upcoming season, we can gather that there will be a theme of artists covering other artists, as the tracklisting from Music from the OC: Mix 6 (to be released 12/5) certainly suggests. Rogue Wave covering Pixies' "Debaser" and Band of Horses covering The New Year's "The End's Not Near" are the highlights that I see. Also, teen R&B singer Chris Brown will appear in seven episodes, playing "a geek" (Brown's description.) So as you can see, there's plenty to be excited about (musically speaking,) the upcoming season.

I'm in Mexico, but I've already seen the season premiere and have a report already to file (complete with sunburn and sand in shorts.)