Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Album
TVT Soundtrax
I can’t speak for how well this goes with the hit show, as I’ve never seen an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (not out of contempt – it just seems like one of those shows that you have to have watched from the start, like Babylon 5 or The X-Files ), but this album makes a pretty good snapshot of the current “alternative” music scene. Mainstays like Garbage, Guided By Voices, K’s Choice, and the Sundays rub shoulders with pop-punkers like Face To Face and Nerf Herder (the latter covering the shows theme song). Some of the best stuff, though, is pretty eclectic – like cello-driven goth chicks Rasputina (whose spooky “Transylvanian Concubine” is easily the record’s highlight), and the haunting, almost-folky ballad from Alison Krauss & Union Station. There’s also a healthy selection of new, relatively unknown bands like Hepburn (poppy radio-friendly ear candy of the Letters To Cleo variety), Black Lab (the lost mutant offspring of the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen), and Superfine (quirk-rock from the Weezer school). All in all, a pretty satisfying package, and one that I assume would please vampires and the high-school students that slay them – hey, series creator Joss Whedon selected the tracks himself, so I have to assume he knows what works with the show. And I even made it through the review without a lame vampire pun like “be sure to stake this one out…”
TVT Records, 23 East 4th St., Third Floor, New York, NY 10003; http:www.tvtrecords.com
