The breakfast cereal talked more than we did all day long
“Bless This Mess” by David Bazan
[audio:02 - Bless This Mess.mp3]
Every few years, right about at this time, I find myself coming back to the same conclusion: I love David Bazan, in all his shapes and forms. David has a new album coming out soon on Barsuk Records called Curse Your Branches. It is his first proper full-length to be released under his own name.
“Bad Diary Days” by Pedro The Lion
[audio:05 Bad Diary Days.mp3]
I first heard David’s band Pedro The Lion when I was 16-years-old on a cassette someone had made for me on my birthday. The song “Bad Diary Days” is simple, haunting and downright depressing given its subject matter of betrayal. I was hooked after one listen. The lyric “the breakfast cereal talked more than we did all day long” is also probably the only reason why I eat the tasteless gruel that is Rice Krispies Cereal. Soon after hearing this I bought It’s Hard To Find A Friend, which remains to this day one of my favorite albums ever recorded.
“Magazine” by Pedro The Lion
[audio:pedro-the-lion-magazine.mp3]
The summer after I got my drivers license I dated a girl who lived 45 minutes west of me. Young romance is a crazy thing, but hour and half commutes can weigh heavy on just about anyone. It was during this odd two month period in my life that my continuing obsession with Control began.I listened to Control whenever driving home after a particularly bad trip, and when things inevitably ended, Control rarely left the tape deck of my 93 Chevy Lumina. Control is a theraputic record for me, despite the harrowing story it holds within.
“Lullaby” by Pedro The Lion
[audio:05-Lullaby.mp3]
When I was 19 I dropped out of college and moved back home a defeated soul. I discovered this song soon after and it was the opening track to every cliched 19-year-old mix tape I made for the next six to seven months. They were some of the best cliched mix tapes of my life.
“Gas And Matches” by Headphones
[audio:01 - Headphones - Gas And Matches.mp3]
I finally discovered Headphones when I was driving with a friend of mine during the summer after my college withdrawal. I was working 40-hour weeks in a butcher shop but life was so much more than that. It was a summer filled with music, malt liquor, pizza and countless drives just like that one. Most of all it was a summer of friendship. While I still contend that David sounds best over a drone backdrop, the electronic thing works somehow. This album still brings me fond memories of this youthful but ultimately fleeting part of my life. They were some of the best months I’ve ever lived.
And here I am, 23 years old, wiser and worldlier, yet still just as giddy as ever for a new David Bazan record.
God bless the Indian Summer.
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