Bazan The Lion

Ex-Pedro The Lion’s David Bazan is My favorite living “person who says he follows Jesus Christ” songwriter on Earth right now. His lyrics are challenging and honest and his lyrics are better than just about anybody else’s lyrics who you currently think might be better than his. He is HANDS DOWN the bravest indie musician currently in the scene. I say again, he is HANDS DOWN the bravest indie musician currently in the scene. Again, he is HANDS DOWN the bravest indie musician currently in the scene. You know I mean this, because when God repeats thinks three times, it’s a pretty big deal. Look it up. I don’t repeat Myself often, but when I do, it’s for something special. Feel free to argue away at who you might think is braver, that but you’d be wrong. 5 Reasons why the son of God believes this:

1. He boldly, bluntly, wisely, and creatively shares his faith in a crowd that is largely void of people who believe I died for them so they could live forever with Me in purity.

2. He answers questions regarding anything about his life during his shows, and doesn’t back down or sugar coat his feelings.

3. He often sings about Me… thus almost immediately losing any indie rock audience or credibility (and don’t thow Sufjan at Me, because name dropping “Bible study” is not in the same depth to which Bazan dares dive).

4. He cusses in songs, sings about having sex in songs, and questions the Bush administration in songs, and name drops awkward slang for semen that’s always a challenge to sing along to… thus almost immediately losing any stereotypical Christian audience (try to find his albums at a Christian store… good luck).

5. He writes songs attacking Pitchfork Media.

David Bazan is an island, seemingly all alone with just himself and Me at his side. See him live and watch the sparks fly as some come to worship, some come to heckle, and some come shouting for Barrabas. Below are a few tracks and a live question and answer segment that I think are fascinating.

This first track is a live question and answer segment from a live show last June that explains how the song “Selling Advertising” is directly written for Pitchfork Media head writer (and common Pedro disser) Ryan Schreiber. The track following is Bazan singing the aforementioned song from the same show that is worth listening to not only because it is interesting to hear it but the dialog after the song following it talks a little more about his distain for Pitchfork.

David Bazan - Live Question and Answer Segment regarding the song “Selling Advertising”.mp3

David Bazan – Selling Advertising (live).mp3

Here’s a new song about Pedro splitting up and the egos involved, from his great new EP entitled Fewer Moving Parts.

David Bazan – Fewer Broken Pieces.mp3

Finally, here’s an acoustic live song from an earlier Bazan album under the name The Headphones. I consider The Headphones album a pretty interesting train wreck, but this song I feel really translates well acoustically.

David Bazan – Hot Girls (live).mp3

These live mp3’s I grabbed from the blog Bradley’s Almanac, and Bradley is nice enough to have the whole show available for download here. Thanks, Bradley!