Pedro The Lion
Achilles Heel
Jade Tree
Among the litany of annoying personality traits some allegedly devout Christians share, nothing results more quickly in a “no, thanks, I’ll just burn in hell” rejoinder than their self-righteous and proselytizing ways.
But when a true believer has the courage to share their doubts, honestly confront their own failings, and confess that they find sinning to be awfully good fun, well, then that’s something worth listening to – especially when it comes in as infectious a package as the new record from David Bazan’s more-or-less solo project, Pedro the Lion.
Achilles Heel continues the often excruciatingly personal public confessional that’s characterized Pedro’s previous records. Bazan adopts a number of thin veneers: He sounds like a bad night out for Charles Bukowski on the piss/shit/vomit-drenched “Keep Swinging,” a cynically detached father at a childbirth on the spare-no-detail “I Do,” a rage-filled jealous lover on the metaphor-heavy “Arizona,” and a suicidally disillusioned worker on “A Simple Plan.”
But from song to song, Bazan’s protagonists are displayed in intimate, loving detail, their all-too-human weaknesses a source of kinship, not a platform for self-righteous finger wagging. Hell, most of the time you get the feeling that Bazan’s awfully close to his subject matter. These are in essence parables – but ones without judgement, which is what makes the songs so effective.
They’re also effective because they’re simple, but extremely well-crafted (though one does wish Bazan’s musical palette included a few more colors). With assistance from Ester Drang keyboardist James McCallister and long-time Pedro contributor and drummer T.W. Walsh, Achilles Heel is fleshed out but remains stark in its overall composition – which highlights Bazan’s lyrics, always the backbone of his material.
That should surprise no one, since all preachers, no matter the religion, wield words like weapons. Bazan’s message, however, is that spirituality is a private matter. On the brilliant “Foregone Conclusions,” Bazan chides the kind of cringe-inducing missionary that makes the notion of an eternity spent in their company utterly hell-like: “You were too busy steering/The conversation toward the Lord/Can’t you hear the voice of the spirit/Begging you to shut the fuck up?”
Amen, brother.
Track to burn: “Foregone Conclusions”
Grade: B+
–John Schacht
!!!
Louden Up Now
Touch & Go/Warp Records
Bringing da white boy funk like no whitey has a right to, !!! (chk-chk-chk) are critics’ lumpy gravy. With lyrics as irrelevant as an insanely high James Brown (all about the vocal rid-dims) and a melodic sense that deserves quartering before shallow burial, there’s nothing left to say except that these seven fuckers know how to bring the beatitude. Yo feets won’t care about nothin’ else.
Demanding that you white punks dance before they play another note is common at live shows… in fact, they get mad if you don’t. Call them caustic, elitist, whatever, !!! just wanna party. Nic Offer’s lyrics are curse-laden, nonsensical and repetitively dumb, but that don’t matter none. It’s all about the bass and drums (six out of seven members play one or both) and the guitar alchemy of Tyler Pope.
Computers play a large role in the mixing, but it’s a trad guitar-bass-drum-horns funk lineup that creates this noise. I was actually disappointed to see keyboards listed as an instrument, but hell, can’t hear “em anyway. This has still got to be some of the best dance music made since they started burning disco albums at baseball stadiums.
Track to burn: “Me & Guiliani Down By the Schoolyard”
Grade: A
–Jesse Steichen
Brightblack
ala.cali.tucky
galaxia.platform.com
Chirping crickets fill the spaces between songs and play a part in segueing from song to song on ala.cali.tucky, which is at heart an ambient country record. Imagine if Pink Floyd had started out as a country band, add a little Cowboy Junkies or Opal, and then the requisite Neil Young influences. The whole record is so laid back and serene that one can accuse the band of being lazy. There is a repetition factor here, but repeated spins open up a more elaborate musical landscape. Nathan Shineywater is the songwriter, plays an archtop guitar, and sings lead. Rachel Hughes sings backup vocals and takes the lead on “Ocean Blue,” an old-time country tune that might make Patsy Cline bust out in tears. That track, the last, clocks in at 7:45, and fades into cricket song, where the last four minutes serve as a lullaby of sorts, nudging the listener into a dream state. This is a nighttime record, a night raga if you will, where the instrumental “Red” is perfect accompaniment to a starlit drive in a half-awake, half-hallucinatory state. The ever-elusive Bonnie Prince Billy, aka Will Oldham, pokes his head into the dream on occasion and sings backup.
Track to burn: “Ocean Blue”
Grade: A-
–Samir Shukla
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2004.
