The Handsome Family: True Detective

Only seconds into hearing its opening theme, I had the feeling that I would be absorbed by the new HBO drama, True Detective. And that was the case, indeed. The first episode has me hooked; I'm thinking this may be the new TV series of the season.   How much of it is down to the mood set by the music?  No way to really test that question now, but listen to the remarkable theme music done by Rennie and Brett Sparks -- the Handsome Family -- to judge for yourself the effect of their "Far From Any Road" (from the 2003 album, Singing Bones) :




The Handsome Family goes back quite a while, at least since the late 90s.  The first time they really registered with me was with their cover of "Famous Blue Raincoat" from the 2005 Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man film.  Or was it when I watched that fascinating 2003 documentary, Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus?  The Sparks definitely deserve the widespread exposure that this HBO hookup could bring to their wonderfully dark and haunting and sometimes humorous (alt-country/folk/gothic?) sounds.