Update On The Updates
Now that I’ve imported all my busking/street drumming posts from the other site all the interviews have been bumped down. So, to see sweet and graphically satisfying (meaning the type is inside the lines and stuff) interviews of Band of Horses , El Ten Eleven, The New Pornograhers, Buke and Gass, Sloan, Local H, Nada Surf, Broken Social Scene, Cheap Trick, Why?, Bear In Heaven, Sonny And The Sunsets, St Vincent, White Mystery, Delta Spirit, The Golden Dogs, Bazan & Band Click on these here links or just go to the Interviews link thing above. Thanks to all the great drummers who’ve participated in these interviews. Coming in the next couple of days, the lost interviews of Dinosaur Jr and Fang Island. Onward!...
Interview: David Bazan and Alex Westcoat of Bazan + Band
David Bazan recently hit the stage at Lincoln Hall with a revved-up band and recharged setlist. You’d be forgiven for expecting a morose affair. Last year he released a highly publicized “break-up with God” album, Curse Your Branches. To support it, he embarked on a solo tour, strumming a classical guitar in intimate living room shows. Bazan has always had great songs. His recordings have continued to evolve with a whack-a-mole array of collaborators. Unfortunately, the live renderings of those songs were often just serviceable. No matter how talented a rotating cast, you can’t fake the on-stage chemistry that comes from steadily playing together. As he descended deeper into his crisis of faith, retired Pedro the Lion, and embraced booze, he produced some uncomfortably shambolic solo shows. Forget all that. This incarnation of Bazan + Band fired on all cylinders. They put the pedal to the metal on “Transcontinental,” torqued-up classics like “When They Really Get to Know You,” and rewired “Gas and Matches” with gritty guitars. The band displayed the veteran chemistry that comes with a full tour under their belt. Sideman Blake Wescott provided counterpoint on guitar as well as ballsy background vocals on “Start Without Me” and “That’s How I Remember.” Young drummer Alex Westcoat completed Bazan’s shift from shoegaze to power pop with his energetic timekeeping. Bazan reasserted himself as one of indie-rock’s most articulate songwriters. He also kept the sing-along crowd on their toes with lyrical change-ups to reflect his renunciation of faith. On “The Fleecing,” he frankly replaced “why I still believe it” with “why I don’t believe it”. In a twist of convention, David Bazan has cleaned up, and lost Jesus. He has embraced agnosticism. But far from leading him into a downward spiral, he’s actually become a more powerful performer. Many of his old songs are thematically schizophrenic; ersatz morality tales full of gratuitous infidelity and misogyny that might’ve scandalized evangelical audiences, but fail to shock in a post-LaBute world. And the increasing desperation of his characters dovetailed with his own edging toward alcoholism. In contrast, the new Bazan tunes are honestly sobering. He’s retired the pulp fiction and started over with stark autobiography. Interestingly, as I interviewed him and Westcoat about the qualities they appreciate in great musicians, the word “spirituality” came up a couple times. While he may have left behind tidy religious doctrines, it’s still hard to avoid some numinous terms when talking about creative...
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