Monday, September 08, 2008

True Blood: Drain You

Now that True Blood has premiered, it's worth looking another quick look at the premiere. One thing that jumped out at me watching it for the third time, was that the only blood flowing was out of a vampire, fitting given that the opening scene was meant to turn the typecast of the vampire on it's redneck ear. I'm still having a hard time with the lack of chemistry between Anna Paquin (Sookie) and Stephen Moyer (Bill,) along with the troubled accents the New Zealander and the Brit put on (Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie's brother Jason, is from Australia, making the cast quite Commonwealth).

Meanwhile, I've compiled the full slate of songs from the first episode in a playlist below. At first glance, looks like Sam has done a decent job of filling the jukebox at Merlotte's Roadhouse, as there's a lot of quality Americana and Blues to be had. It's tough to make out most the music, though, as it's so far in the background that nearly any given song could be just about anything.

Robbie Fulks, Jessie Sykes, Lucinda Williams, Southern Culture on the Skids, Josh Ritter... they make for a great playlist, not that you'd know it watching the series. I'm not promoting the idea that music has to move to the forefront, but it seems silly to pay music for songs that you can't even make out. The few songs that did make it out of the background, I wrote about in the preview last week (Joseph Arthur, Little Big Town). Here's the great opening credit sequence, featuring Jace Everett's "Bad Things":



Playlist: True Blood - Episode 1.01
1. "Ya'll'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me" - C.C. Adcock
2. "Goodbye, Good-Lookin'" - Robbie Fulks
3. "Soulful Garage" - Southern Culture on the Skids
4. "Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter" - The Dreaming Dead
5. "Strange Love" - Slim Harpo
6. "Lake Charles" - Lucinda Williams
7. "Still Beating" - Josh Ritter
8. "Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars" - Dang Good Stuff
9. "Stumble And Pain" - Joseph Arthur
10. "Bones" - Little Big Town
Full tracklisting and synopsis

1 comment:

Arjan said...

I got kinda hooked on True Blood (watched both previews). The lack of chemistry might just be a good thing showing it's still a bit of an awkward situation they're in.

Sometimes you just have to have some background music..it just gives the edge..even if you don't recognise it, as long as they don't have to pay too much for it. I know people had a hard time recognising some tracks in The Wire (before S4).