Jake Lazovick/Busman's Holiday/Paul Baribeau @ Frisby House 9/14/10

Paul Baribeau


Busman's Holiday


Jake Lazovick


Last night I got the chance to head out to Baltimore to finally see Paul Baribeau live. He has played Baltimore (and Frisby House) a lot but I had never gotten a chance to see him before. I also don't get the chance to head out to too many shows anymore because of my crazy work schedule, so it was awesome to be able to get too go to as intimate a venue as Frisby House.

Jake Lazovick opened the show. Jake is an awesome kid. He stills goes to high school at Wooton on the outskirts of D.C. and he plays acoustic folk punk. He's been in bands like Braceface Mini Punx, Foozle, and Bookworm. He writes heartwarming, goofy, and good natured songs about things like high fives, the horrors of small talk, and hanging out with your friends. It's always fun to see him play.

Next was Busman's Holiday, who I had never heard before. It was definitely a pleasant surprise. Lewis and Addison Rogers (who are actually brothers, apparently) make up a two piece with guitar, and a quirky drum set featuring a suitcase for a bass drum. They play beautiful, sentimental acoustic pop gems with amazing harmonies. They put on an amazing show and were funny, interesting, and witty too boot. True entertainers.

Paul Baribeau closed the show. He just came out with his new record, Unbearbale, but his set list was a great mix of new songs as well as old staples from his repertoire including "Ten Things," "Christmas Lights," "I Miss That Band," "Strawberry," and even the odd jewel "Table Cloth," which features just voice and percussion provided by Baribeau's knuckle on the body of the guitar. He was everything you expected him to be, between going off on tangents about Bloomington and his life at his parent's house in Michigan, or making the drummer of Busman's Holiday do all his between-song banter for a couple of songs during the beginning of the set after claiming, "I'm not doing banter anymore." He even poked a little lighthearted fun at Andrew Jackson Jihad when there was an announcement about their show at The Bell Foundry on the 23rd.

The songs seem that make up Unbearable are a bit more mellow than those on Grand Ledge, which was mellow compared to the upbeat, raucous songs on his debut self titled. But Baribeau offering a less in-your-face approach doesn't mean he's lost any of his initial vest and vitality that drew you to him as a songwriter in the first place. In fact, it works to his advantage, especially in the live setting. His songs still barely surpass the two minute mark, but songs like "If I Knew" and "Blue Cool" work perfectly to showcase Baribeau continuing to grow as a lyricist of brilliant pop-folk songs while retaining his signature snappy, palm-mute laden guitar with new flourishes thrown in that do not disappoint at all.

"Black Strat" might be the best song on the album. Baribeau introduced the song live as "maybe being about Pink Floyd," before giggling and going off on a tangent about listening to Pink Floyd when he was 10 years old. Whatever it's about, it's mesmerizing, with a brilliant chorus:

It was holy
It felt so holy
I said holy shit

Anybody else uttering the same line might come off as contrite or vulgar, but Baribeau's endearing, unmistakable voice make it sound like a revelation. Which is part of what makes Paul Baribeau continue to be such a beloved and relevant songwriter. He sounds like he could be anyone in the room; he just happens to be the one holding a guitar.


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Jake Lazovick - Us and Only Us Split



Busman's Holiday - Old Friends (2010)



Paul Baribeau - Unbearable (2010)

Lee Gull

For years, the Pacific Northwest has fostered a vibrant, famous scene. Artists from the likes of Mudhoney and Nirvana, and the offspring of the grunge explosion, as well as diverse acts like Elliott Smith, Carissa's Wierd, Minus the Bear, Botch ,The Kidcrash, just to name a small few, leave just about no genre unturned. Record labels like K Records, brainchild of Calvin Johnson, have put out records from important independents artists for years, including Phil Elverum (The Microphones/Mount Eerie), Modest Mouse, Kimya Dawson, Karl Blau, Little Wings, Mirah, The Blow, and Jason Anderson.

The K Records family has spawned it's own quiet revolution in the Pacific Northwest over the past decade and a half, nowhere near as renowned as the grunge movement of the early '90's, but, in the eyes of some, far more important. On his debut record under the name Lee Gull, Lee Baggett, musical companion of K's own Kyle Field (Little Wings) as well as a member of the band Be Gulls, stakes his claim as an important songwriter in his own right.

The songs on Burn'r are not even comparable to the more existential, introspective laments of Baggett's peers Elverum, Field, Johnson, and more recently, Adrian Orange. They are mostly upbeat, jangly, lo-fi psychedelic pop gems that sound like they could have been the result of Neil Young fucking around in the garage on the 4 track after getting too stoned. They retain a hazy, fuzzy quality that doesn't take away from the quality of the music, but rather adds to it, and brings to mind not only artists like Young and Crazy Horse, but Will Oldham and associate Kyle Field, as well (if they dropped acid and decided to write more guitar solos). Songs like "Clover Hill", the album's opener, showcase Baggett's knack for witty, clever, and catchy songwriting. The music is jammy and fun, complete with guitar solos that never seem too overdone. Burn'r is without a doubt one of the most slept-on records to be released, not only in 2008, but of the decade. This guy has only 48 listeners on Last.fm!

Download this, and then buy Burn'r from Marriage Records or one his other releases People in a Position to Know.

Unfortunately, this is the only release I have by Lee Baggett. I know he has put out several other records, including a split with Little Wings. If anyonse has these please leave a comment or post a link in the C-Box!

Here's a video of what would appear to be Kyle Field and Lee Baggett playing frisbee while "Where Does the Damage Lie?" plays in the background:

Lee Gull "Where does the damage lay?" from greg olin on Vimeo.

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Burn'r (2008)

Magnolia Electric Co. @ The Black Cat 7/20/09

At the Black Cat in Washington D.C. on Monday night, a packed, hot room noisily awaited Jason Molina and his band, the Magnolia Electric Co., to take the stage. The bar was crowded, and before the show Molina himself was posted up next to the door into the concert room, beer in hand, slightly rocking back on his heels and chatting to a band mate seated at a bar stool, who still might have had a good few inches over Molina as he stood next to him.

Molina's short stature might surprise some who have never had the pleasure of seeing the man in person: few would suspect that the broken wail of the man who recorded some of the most haunting alt-country tracks released in the past two decades came out of such a small package. Since abandoning his Songs: Ohia moniker however, which Molina recorded under from 1996-2003, Molina's naked vibrato of a voice has given way to a lilting croon, a shift which some (read: Pitchfork Media) have lambasted, accusing the artist of dumping his past musical and vocal styles for a lame-duck, classic rock makeover.

What should be remembered here though, is that Molina as an artist has never had any qualms about taking on new artistic direction and following his heart. Like Dylan and Young (who he is often compared to) before him, Molina's every musical move is often scrutinized by a die-hard fan base that for the most part seems to prefer the Songs: Ohia era to the Magnolia Electric Co. era. Rather than having to deal with completely confused, clueless, and naive reporters like Dylan would often run into (such as the reporter Dylan gives a stern talking-to in the iconic 1967 D.A. Pennebaker documentary Don't Look Back), Molina's albums tend to fall into the hands of individuals who know his work well; Oftentimes, pretentious and critical media outlets (read: Pitchfork). Artists inevitably change and take on new directions in their work, a fact that all too many music critics have failed to take into account since the beginning of musical criticism.

Granted, there are artists who's work take bizarre and unsuspecting turns, which do not always work out (like some of Dylan and Young's more questionable work in the 80's, for example), but Molina is hardly proclaiming himself a born-again Christian or writing a a vocoder-laden synth-heavy album (yes, Neil Young released an album like that (1982's Trans)...stick to Harvest, believe me). Molina's stylistic shift since the last (technically) Songs: Ohia album Magnolia Electric Co. is one that should be welcomed, and a move that largely is by his faithful fans, despite all the detractors (read: PITCHFORK). If the man was still releasing albums with just his voice, a guitar, and brushed drumming I have a feeling that Pitchfork would be throwing out some 5.6's for a lack of originality just the same as they did for Molina's newest album, released two days ago, entitled Josephine, for a departure from his older work.

Magnolia Electric Co., the 2003 album which featured the debut of Molina's new, band-driven sound was an absolute bone-crusher. Every single song of the album stood as one of Molina's crowning achievements, even the two songs on which other band members sang (he still penned the lyrics), a move which has also been criticized by some, but I think was Molina's way of stubbornly stating the the Songs: Ohia days were over. Since picking up a full band, Molina has also released two full length LP's under his own name, Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go (2006), a dark, quiet acoustic record, and the more dense, weirder Pyramid Electric Co, (2004), which came out shortly after Magnolia Electric Co. a coupling which is briefly and cryptically explained in the liner notes to that album:

...I started to feel like two records were going to come out of what I was seeing and thinking. The two have ended up being one I did alone with a piano and a guitar: The Pyramid Electric Co. and one where I called some friends together: The Magnolia Electric Co. I think they both mean something. I don't know what, but trust me, I am working on it.

Previous to the release of the first Magnolia record, Molina had put out 24 (count 'em, 24!) releases as Songs: Ohia, one collobartive 7" with Scottish artist Alasdair Roberts, and one record with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Alasdair Roberts as the Amalgamated Sons of Rest in 2002, not to mention exclusive compilation tracks and other random appearances.

Since then, Molina has been no less prolific, putting out three LP's, two EP's, a live album, two solo LP's and a 7", as well as the massive Sojourner boxset put out in 2007, which featured three full length albums, one four song EP recorded at legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, a documentary DVD, as well as a celestial map and medallion all encased in a wooden box. Granted, Magnolia's 2006 LP Fading Trails was compiled from the recording sessions found on Sojourner, but that hardly takes away from how much studio time was put into the sessions themselves and how massive a collection of music this is, even without counting the tracks that would appear on Fading Trails.

So it can be safe to say that on Monday night Molina and his band, a bassist, drummer, keyboardist, and lead guitarist, had a large canon of material to choose from, even excluding all the Songs: Ohia and solo material, which, keeping in the Molina tradition of playing only newer material, the band does not perform live. The set list spanned the entire Magnolia Electric Co. catalog, and did not disappoint anyone judging from the crowd's reactions. There were a few cuts which I would have liked to hear (such as "Hammer Down", and "The Dark Don't Hide It") but he played a wide array of songs, including a notable and dour version "I've Been Riding With the Ghost", and a rare performance of "Hold On Magnolia" (both from Magnolia Electric Co.), "Hard to Love A Man", "Leave the City" (2005's What Comes After the Blues), and a whole slew of cuts from the Sojourner sessions including "Down the Wrong Road Both Ways", "Talk to Me Devil, Again", and "What Comes After the Blues".

The set was also peppered with songs from the new album Josephine, and were some of the highlights of the set. A slight reworking of "Rock Of Ages", which appeared on the 1000 piece limited "It's Made Me Cry" 7" released for Record Store Day this year was a pleasant surprise; it fits more into the "old" sound of the new record.

Josephine as a whole seems to mix elements of MECO's earlier work with a more mellow, subdued side, featuring delicate backing vocals that would not feel out of place on a record released in the 1950's. The album is far more, for lack of a better word, pretty, then MECO's last LP, Fading Trails. The emphasis is laid much more on the piano in most of these songs (and on the slightly funky "Little Sad Eyes", organ) than the guitar-oriented work on the Sojourner sessions.

Live, the band kept the tracks off the new record mostly true to their album versions, and tended to take more liberty with the older songs. Molina kept asking the time throughout the set, and at 11:59 (since July 21st was the official release date for the album) paused before saying, "Welcome to the stage, Josephine..." as the band kicked into the new album's title track.

Overall, his band was tight, knowing when to step up and solo, and when to
let the lyric take center stage. Molina seemed to be in good humor, at one point told an anecdote about how he accidentally swallowed a bee during his dinner in the club's cafe, and later, as he took a long swig off of one of the Corona's next to his amp remarked, "The bee's getting drunk, though."

The band quickly re-took the stage for an encore, and despite a few isolated calls for "Hammer Down", and one lame yelp for "Captain Badass" (from Songs: Ohia's Axxess & Ace), dove into a raucous version of "John Henry Split This Heart" from the Magnolia Electric Co LP before finally calling it quits...It was definitely a great ending to a great show.

Below you can download every Magnolia Electric Co. release.


I feel like I should apologize for posting just as much alt-country as punk lately, but I at the same time that artists like these embody the DIY punk aesthetic just as much as any other band, and it's good to have a little variety every once in a while, right? Look out for most posts soon, sorry we've been so lazy.


Read the Pitchfork review.





Magnolia Electric Co. (2003)



Trials and Errors (2005)



What Comes After the Blues (2005)



Hard To Love a Man EP (2005)



Fading Trails (2006)

Sojourner Box Set (2007)



Disc 1: Nashville Moon



Disc 2: Black Ram



Disc 3: Sun Session EP



Disc 4: Shohola



It's Made Me Cry 7" (2009)



Josephine (2009)

Pedro The Lion Christmas Singles

In the spirit of Christmas, I thought I would post these. David Bazan aka Pedro the Lion's limited run Christmas releases. I'm pretty sure I have them all except the newest. Thanks to Joey for e-mailing me these!

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I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (2002)



The First Noel (2003)



God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (2005)



Away in a Manger (2006)

Pedro The Lion

David Bazan has always heralded special attention in the independent music scene. For as many die hard Pedro the Lion fans as there are, there may be just as many running for cover as soon as they hear the word "Christian". The most common fallacy attributed to Bazan's body of work is that simply because he is a Christian his songwriting is somehow tainted. As one who doesn't believe in a supreme being, I can still say: entirely untrue.

Instead of writing songs that warrant group sing-a-longs and cheesy camera close ups of teary eyed teens holding their hands above their heads and singing to Heaven, Bazan's songs often directly confront his faith and the idiosyncrasies he faces as both a Christian and the modern man. Perhaps the best example of this is in "Letter from a Concerned Follower" (Progress EP, The Only Reason I Feel Secure), which directly questions God's ability to remain relevant in the modern world:


It's weird to think of all the things
That have not been keeping up with the times
It's ten o'clock the sun has just now
Begun to set the western hills on fire

And I hear that you don't change
How to you expect to keep up with the trends?
You won't survive the information age
Unless you plan to change the truth
To accommodate the brilliance of men, the brilliance of men

Some folks think we're better now
Social evolution's new synthetic will
Will keep us on a straighter path
As better men use brand new math
With no wrong answers

I'm just a little bit worried
Do you have some sort of plan?
Have you been finally defeated
By the cunning of these fully evolved men?

And I hear that you don't change
How do you expect to keep up with the trends?
You won't survive the information age
Unless you plan to change the truth
To accommodate the brilliance of men, the brilliance of men

It seems that far too often people are willing to write of Bazan's work as shallow and close-minded, but these individuals are guilty of the same narrow-mindedness as a Christian refusing to listen to hip-hop or punk rock. Although Bazan narrates his depressing tales from a Western Christian point of view, the themes in his work and his struggles with his faith are universal.

Certainly, on tracks like "Slow and Steady Wins the Race", Bazan's Christianity come to the forefront. Starting off with the line, "All the way to Grandma's house/I stayed on the narrow path/While my brother wandered off/Deep into the woods..." it serves as a sort of parable for the straight life vs. one of faithless hedonism, but even if one cannot buy into the story of personal salvation offered up by Bazan when he sings,

And when I get to Heaven
I'll be greeted warmly
Surrounded by the angels
As Jesus takes my hand

one cannot help but recognize the unbridled passion and longing in his voice as he delivers the lines.

But it is the juxtaposition of such songs with scenes like the ones described in "Rapture" (Control), which kicks off with Bazan's signature warble: "This is how we muliply/Pity that's it not my wife..." that allows us to explore the darker side of his struggles with faith and morality. As much as he is a Christian man governed by his faith, he is also a visibly mortal individual, concerned with far more than simply Jesus.

Like "Bad Diary Days" (It's Hard to Find a Friend), a perfect bitter break-up song; an account of a man who slowly comes to realize his girlfriend is cheating on him. And "When They Really Get To Know You They Will Run" (also on It's Hard...) takes a sarcastic look at Western culture's fascination with personal beauty:

i don't like girls the way they are
so shave their legs
and make them look like movie stars
then we can pretend it's natural

put on whatever makes you attractive
if it's not you then do it for the sake of fashion
your friends like a certain you
that's who you've got to be

Some are put off by Bazan's lyrics. Others, simply his faith. Others still cannot get behind his bassy voice and deceptively simple song structures. I for one cannot get enough!

I am missing basically all the singles and the Christmas singles, if anyone has them I would really appreciate being able to add them to my collection!

P.S. Keep on the lookout for a post of David Bazan's post-Pedro output, including live performances, and a rare pre-Pedro demo.



Here is an old video of David performing "Diamond Ring", a favorite of mine.



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Whole (1997)



It's Hard to Find a Friend (1998)



The Only Reason I Feel Secure (1999)



Winners Never Quit (2000)



Progress EP (2000)



Control (2002)



Achille's Heel (2004)



Tour EP '04 (2004)



Stations EP (2004)