Best TV Theme Of 2010: Robert Duncan's "Gunfight Epiphany" (From FX's "Terriers")

First off, lemme just say that any show starring Donal Logue has my full attention, which is why I first tuned into the new FX show "Terriers".  Thankfully, the show is worth it.  Donal co-stars with Michael Raymond-James as an unlikely duo of private investigators who can't seem to stay out of trouble.

But enough about them, what I'm finding just as cool as the show itself is the theme song, "Gunfight Epiphany" by Robert Duncan, a musician responsible for "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", as well as recent show "The Unit", "Lie To Me", and "Castle".

Chances are if you click on the YouTube clip above you will want to check out more music by this amazing guy, so here's the LINK to his MySpace page, which features some other really cool tracks.

Where Is The Now?

While it's almost impossible to realize that first moment when your gaze shifts from the road in front of you to that which you've already covered, one of life's simplest, harshest truths is that, at some point, we all look back.

We all wish we'd have paid a little more attention during the halcyon days of our journey, stopping to smell the flowers now and again, but, only in the rearview mirror do we recognize just how wonderful those days were, or how alive we felt compared to now.

When I was a kid, music was so vibrant, so alive. You could listen to a Top 40 station and hear ten songs an hour that ran the gamut of genres: Steely Dan, 10cc, Leo Sayer, Little River Band, the Bee Gees, Randy Vanwarmer, the Knack. Of course, only in hindsight do I realize how great it was to have such "crappy mainstream stations" at my disposal.

Being stuck in a small town, I had access only to those record stores at the local shopping mall, typical chain stores such as Musicland and Record Town, yet I distinctly remember walking into such stores and being giddy at the sight of albums by the likes of the Police, Adam & The Ants, Pearl Harbor & The Explosions, the Fabulous Poodles, Bram Tchaikovsky, 20/20, and so on.

Walk into a chain music store these days and you're bound to see them selling anything but music. It's all about "lifestyle" these days. They can sell you Rob Zombie and Kiss action figures, or ten different faux-vintage AC/DC t-shirts at $30 a pop, but they can't be bothered to stock a copy of "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap".

So it isn't just me whose too busy looking back to move forward. The whole world is doing it and, well, it's gotten completely out-of-hand. Labels, at some point, seemed to decide for anybody over the age of 24 that no new music was needed. Instead, we are served up one "deluxe re-issue" after another of 20 or 30-year old albums, as if any amount of remastering, restoring of original cover art, and the inclusion of non-essential bonus tracks can make the album any better than our memories.

Enough people must be buying those things, otherwise the labels would not still be doing it...right?

Sure, new bands get signed and they hit the stage with all the insecure ferocity of a kid playing lead tennis racket in front of a bedroom mirror while jamming that first Van Halen record at top volume. Yes, Eddie Van Halen very well may have done the same thing when he was young, but at some point, he put down the tennis racket, picked up a guitar, and turned the world on its ear.

He sure as hell wasn't looking back, pillaging the past for a lack of anything new to offer. Bands these days, though, all seem content in sampling some 20-year-old song in an ironic way, as if doing so ensures them of all-important relevance in the here-and-now.

If the best days of these kids' lives are already spent looking back, what on earth will they do when they get wistful for their own "good ol' days"? Good question.

Suddenly I don't feel so bad. It could be worse, I could be them in twenty years with nothing of my own to look back upon.