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David Bazan - "Bless This Mess"
David Bazan's curse your branches (9/1, Barsuk) is the Pedro The Lion/Headphones main man's first full-length under his own name. We spoke with him about its "Bless This Mess," which debuts in this week's 'Gum Drop.
"Bless This Mess" covers a lot of territory -- dysfunctional families, alcoholism, mirrors, forgiveness, history. What inspired it? The song is largely autobiographical. So any narrative in the song reflects actual events. Though I may have embellished a bit. But the main lyrical gimmick is sort of a self-conscious and hopeful interpretation of the Beatitudes, which I have an uneasy relationship with as the narrative tends to illustrate.
God's blessing a number of things in the song, good and bad. It ends with "God bless the history that doesn't repeat." It's intended to be hopeful? It's only in hindsight I'm able to evaluate why I wrote a lyric or what it might mean. At the time I'm usually just scrambling to write words that I like and that feel good to sing. But now that I have some distance ... in my mind historically, when God's blessing is invoked by someone saying "God bless this" or "God bless that" it's an expression of humility and need combined with some amount of optimism about the outcome of their situation. But the way that I've seen it used more recently ("God Bless America") tends to express pride and a sense of superiority with the always underlying themes of manifest destiny. And I think that's bullshit. So yes, I do feel like it's hopeful.
Premature Evaluation: Beach House - Teen Dream
When we meditated on Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally's gorgeous sophomore album Devotion we had the following to say: [Y]ou can't fall back on Mazzy Star or Galaxie 500 references because they've pushed themselves into their own, unique solar system.... (more)
New Jonathan Boulet Video - "A Community Service Announcement"
This dude's the latest signing to Australia's Modular label, landing with a tidy package of promotional offerings: a catchy, moistly breezy indie-pop debut single that couldn't be better titled for a meet-the-artist track; a subtly arresting/marginally tricked-out video; and a... (more)
New El Guincho - "Antillas (XXXchange Remix)"
When we first heard onetime BTW Pablo Díaz-Reixa, aka El Guincho, we were drawn in by "Antillas," a song we described as "a five-minute bundle of clattering loops and sunny harmonies." It was from the self-released Alegranza!, before he'd signed... (more)
Muse To Headline Coachella 2010?
According to Consequence Of Sound, a previously reliable source pins Muse to the coming year's desert fest headlining slot. Glenn Beck just bought a ticket. The dates are April 16-18. Oh and these Coachella headliner rumors? Needs more Pavement.... (more)
Parents Just Don't Understand Horrorcore
From hardcore to heavy metal to gangsta rap, local TV news teams have long warned parents about the terrifying new sounds rotting teenage brains. This week it's San Fran's KPIX on the horrorcore scene. Not all juggalos are murderers, dad!... (more)
