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 ..pedrothelion.. With one of the greatest "ep"'s I've ever heard, David Bazan has caught my attention again with the album
Control. What's Wrong With Second Best, a song on this almost brilliantly monotone
record, is a song that I could just follow as the emotion went up and down, almost on a trail of sadness that has more downs
than ups. I could feel David's voice as he yelled from what seems to literally be the bottom of his heart. The
other songs, such as Options tackle the issues of everyday living in the modern American society. This particular
song talks about pre-nuptual agreements in a marriage with lyrics like: I could never divorce you/Without a reason/
And though I may never have to/It's good to have options/But for now I need you. Later songs mention corperate
cum, the world and it's money values, a stabbing, and a man with a prostitute.
If there's something that David could always do, it was tell a story. In the ep it was a drug addict
coming to Jesus Christ. Here we have a man exploring the emptiness the world that we live in, with the beginnings
of a prenuptual, to the middle with an unhappy fake family, to the end with the death of a sad sad human being. Now,
some people would say that maybe Bazan has gone through a terrible time, but maybe he's just lived in this world for
more than five minutes and realized how hard it is sometimes. We all know what it's like to fall, and in this album,
we just get lower and lower until we can't feel anymore because the music just stops. I can feel what is being said
here, and it's very simple: "Wouldn't it be so wonderful if everything were meaningless but everything is so meaningful,
most everything turns to shit, Rejoice" - the last line of the album. I think that he wants people to see that
there is something beyond what we can see, even from his lyrics. I just think that we'll have to wait until his next
project, and I will not truly rejoice until then.
-Daniel Griswold
Monday June 17th, 2002 10:35 pm
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David Bazan: |
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Trey Many: |
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The Story So Far:
Though the name was originally affiliated with an
earnest band of truth-seekers and storytellers, the incarnation of Pedro the Lion that managed to resonate loudest is also
its most quiet likeness. Enter the world of singer/songwriter David Bazan.
As a five-piece, Pedro the Lion mustered up enough material to record a mostly-loud EP for Tooth & Nail
in 1997 before finally disbanding and reinventing itself as an alias for Bazan's solo songwriting muse. Quickly following
up the EP with a full-length album, It's Hard To Find A Friend (re-released on Jade Tree) for the venerable Made In
Mexico label, Bazan rightfully deconstructed the meaning of the name and attached to it the sense of warmth, vulnerability,
and breathy intimacy that inspired SPIN magazine to call it one of the "ten best records you didn't hear" in 1998.
After
releasing an EP, The Only Reason I Feel Secure (also re-released by Jade Tree) for Made In Mexico and signing with
Jade Tree in 1999, Bazan has been steadfastly working on changing his reputation for writing music you wonąt hear: Indeed,
Winners Never Quit has become his best-selling record to date - and that's no small feat considering the songs piece
together the story of a sinful man determined to get to heaven by remaining "uncaught." The follow-up, dubbed Control
and due out April 16, 2002, finds Bazan back in a familiar place - alone and in his home studio in Washington. Control
will be available to be pre-ordered on February 19, 2002.
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