Headphones
w/Crystal Skulls, Western States, the Sea Navy
Sun June 12, Neumo’s, 8 pm, $10, all ages.
Pedro the Lion frontman David Bazan is a master of morose, dejected tunes about hopelessness, decay, and paralysis. For his latest project, Headphones, Bazan’s slow moaning delivery, relentlessly downbeat subject matter, and invariable morbidity remain the same-but he’s ditched the soaring guitar sound in favor of plinky synths and unadorned drum patterns. It’s surprisingly groovy, in a retro, Depeche Mode sort of way.
Of course, Bazan is the rare songwriter who can get away with being ceaselessly negative. His songs are glum but mature, taking on themes like religious faith (Bazan is a born-again Christian), euthanasia, loveless marriages, and wrecked lives; subject areas where other songwriters fear to tread.
On Headphones’ self-titled debut, Bazan is joined by fellow Pedro the Lion member Tim Walsh and the steady drumming of Frank Lenz. Together they craft a cleverly bleepy backdrop, using dusty synths to texturize the music. The tunes pulse and flick about like the theme from Donkey Kong, if German tech wizards had produced it.
Lyrically, “Shit Talker,” is somewhat of a departure from the usual for Bazan-a song that’s almost funny. To funeral procession-paced drums, he bleats, “You talk shit about them to me/You talk shit about me to them/They know this, you have to know they do, and now you know I know too.” For a Jesus guy, Bazan cusses consistently on every record. He appears to be making a real effort to distinguish himself from other savior-touting acts. Along with the sinful language, his music seems too dark, morbid, and intensely unhappy to click with your average Jesus freak.
The rest of the material is as negative as ever, from the completely downcast “I Never Wanted You,” which is likely told from a despondent wife’s perspective (a theme Bazan has written about before) to “Natural Disaster” a wordy tune that contains various religious and political references and is supposedly an anti-Bush song. (But if so, it’s even less politically obvious than Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.)
Short and sweet, no fluff or bullshit, Headphones shows Bazan dipping deeper into the abyss-and the results are actually quite lovely.