This Indie Band Sounds Straight Out Of A 2000s TV Soundtrack—Without Any Of The Mixtape Mess
Brooklyn-based duo Ray Bull is the brain-child of Tucker Elkins and Aaron Graham, former art school classmates who found success performing original songs and mash-ups on TikTok, but the second you hear them start to sing, their nostalgic sound transports you to a time when TV soundtracks were the official tastemakers, setting the cultural tempo on an international scale.
Take a listen to their best tracks that remind us of the most memorable moments of our favorite TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The O.C., Gossip Girl, and The Vampire Diaries.
Little Acts Of Violence
The titular track to their most recent EP, “Little Acts Of Violence” is the hard hitting song you slot into the finale scene of your TV pilot. It evokes all the teenaged angst and emotional disfunction you need to get audiences invested in a trust fund kid who just got into their first fist fight or an emotionally stunted medical professional who is still figuring out how to be an adult. The how and why doesn’t matter, we just know someone is going to be walking off into the dark reflecting on their poor life choices before the credits roll.
Reelin
This song is the awkward slow dance between two characters who are having way too hard of a time expressing their feelings for each other. Maybe they come from different worlds, maybe one is a vampire, but whether they’re doing the two-step shimmy in a model home or at a white-tie cotillion, the track is carrying all of the longing and pining and lusting to an all but inevitable apex, only to leave stans hanging with an almost kiss. Some TV formulas don’t require adjusting.
Better Than Nothing
This is the theme song for your liberated underdog. He’s a nerd coming into his own, learning that his alternative taste and quirky style really does have it’s own appeal. Maybe he’s riding a long-board down a pier, or driving off into the sunset in a convertible, or running ecstatically down the street after his first kiss, but it’s his joy, exhilaration, and new-found confidence we feel amplified through the track.
The New Thing Dies
This is the big romantic decision/gesture track. When someone turns around and decides to run down the hall of the hospital or the private boarding school, and stop the love of their life from slipping through their fingers. Maybe there’s a kiss or a cliff-hanger gut-punch that they decided to get back with their ex, but it’s that moment in your drama where regret, accountability and action converge to deliver moments of epic TV magic.
