catapult magazine

has anyone else heard the new wilco album, “yankee hotel foxtrot”? if not, i highly recommend it; it’s really quite amazing. it almost sounds (at times) like a mix of avant-garde jazz and rock. they do some great stuff with drums, sometimes creating more melody than rhythm with them.

wilco also went through quite an ordeal to release this record. their original label, reprise (a subsidiary of time warner), dropped them after hearing the album because the record executives didn’t think it had any radio hits. wilco got to take the album with them for free when they left the label, no strings attached (which is rare in the music business because the label pays the artist up front for the album). then, after being “courted” by several new labels for almost a year, they signed with nonesuch records (a subsidiary of time warner). so essentially, the same company paid the same band twice for the same album.

while they were in between labels, the band put up the entire album on their website for download. the whole napster thing still scares the crap out of record companies because they think people will stop buying CDs if they can just download music online.

during the first week of its release, “yankee hotel foxtrot” sold more than 50,000 copies and debuted at number 8 on the billboard charts.

wilco. stickin’ it to the record industry man.

Jo,

I’ve only ever heard Winners Never Quit by Pedro the Lion. It is good. SAD. Concepty, deceptively simple, and interesting. Ryan VK told me about him and that he’s a christian. Certainly not CCM as most people know it. I really respect what he’s doing. Do you have Control, and should I buy it?

Tell me more about Pedro the Lion, please. Are we talking folk music?

And…………

Fortunately, it seems that there are less people in the world who think artists in a “secular” market are no longer Christian.

And………..

Just a minor clarification about the way I’m talking about contributing to culture. I don’t think an artist has to make a name for herself in the history books of music/graphic arts/poetry etc. in order to make a major cultural contribution. Everything is already a cultural contribution. That’s what humans do. You can’t really be human if you’re not contributing to culture, because being a human is culturing. As we say here in CINOLAND, culturing is not optional.

well, i’ll throw in my 2 cents re: pedro.

I think he’s from seattle, but i could be wrong about that. Pedro the lion is basically just a single guy, but other people play with him when does live shows. He’s a very interesting guy. he’s most definitely christian but many of his fans aren’t completely aware of it, as many of his fans are non-christians (he’s got a pretty strong ‘indie’ / college-radio type following). He sings about God / faith / religion in many of his songs, but it’s very different than your typical “christian” music. He’s not preachy and he’s often very introspective. and as jason said, SAD; he likes to tell sad stories through his songs. Many of his songs are about his personal struggles with faith, some are critical of “the church”, etc. He doesn’t seem to be trying to ‘evangelize’ at all, he just seems to sing about what he believes, and the struggles inherit in it (see especially “the secret of the easy yoke”, where he simulataneously admits his failings and doubts while also criticising the WWJD bracelet-style christianity. (“the devoted were wearing bracelets… but if all that’s left is duty, i’m falling on my sword”, etc) http://www.punkreviews.com/scripts/lyrics.cgi?id=2126#10).

when we saw him live, he did a question / answer thing between songs (it was rather humorous, after every song: “anybody have any questions?”). The crowd was mostly your indie/college-radio crowd, and one person asked if the rumors were true that pedro the lion was a ‘christian rock band’. he kind of paused a while and then said something like “well, we don’t consider ourselves a christian rock band for two reasons. one: we don’t like christian rock. and two: we really, really don’t like christian rock”. so, take that how you will.

anyway, the music isn’t folk, i guess the closest I could get with some sort of a label is ‘indie’ or ‘emo’, but those tags don’t really mean much to me. Some of the songs are close to punk, and some are very slow and melancholy.

jason: if you like his style at all, i’d recommend control. it’s a very good album. I’ve heard it’s supposed to have some sort of a theme, but i haven’t listened enough to pick much out, except for his apparent obsession with extramarital affairs and the effects that they have on relationships, etc. (there’s at least 3 songs that cover that subject on the new album)

I just went to that link and read the lyrics from Control. The lyrics from the last track alone have sparked my curiosity enough to check it out. Thanks Jonner…

jonner, thanks for describing Pedro for me. Yes, Control is an excellent album and if he’s ever in your area, you should check him out. He’s really laid back but he’s surprisingly engaging throughout the show. He drew a sizeable crowd in Minneapolis— mostly composed of college kids (minus all the frat boys) and young adults. Since my somewhat abrupt departure from CCM about 6 years ago, I’ve found my music niche at the moment in indie rock. Pedro is the only Christian musician I’ve heard of, in that genre of music.

i’m with jason. i checked out some lyrics on fan sites and i’d love to hear them. pleasantly “real” thoughts on living with faith. the next time i buy a cd, it will be pedro the lion. i had almost forgotten about him until jo and jonner mentioned him here.

i must admit, i heard pedro (with the band) in mount vernon washington in a little bitty church building and wasn’t impressed at the time. maybe he was just having a bad night, or let the sadness from his songs (which i do remember being quite melancholy in both the lyrical content and the sound) overcome him, b/c he was not engaging whatsoever. in fact, i don’t even recall him speaking in between any of the songs other than to say “the name of this song is…”
i suppose i should give him another chance, anyway, after reading this thread…

Anybody ever hear the album/band “The Word”. Cool Jazz/Avante Garde/Funk/Rock. Groovy stuff. John Medeski (or is it Martin or Wood? I think Medeski) is in it, along with some other familiar names which allude me at the moment. All I know of them is the one album that a student of mine burned for me. It is the only “Christian” music I can dig outside of Golden Harp and some dorky CCM tunes that I get embarrased by. I haven’t even checked them on allmusic yet. Anybody hear this album or have any other information?
Norb

hey norb.

this is a pretty old post so you’ll probably never see this reply, but i’ll respond to it anyway.

the two main originators behind “the word” project was john medeski and the blues-rock outfit “the north mississippi all-stars”. they wanted to do a traditional gospel flavored album and happened across this guy named robert randolph who plays amazing pedal steel guitar.

i think he’d only played outside of church once or twice, but they asked if he would “help out” with “the word” album. well, basically it turned into “the robert randolph band” featuring john medeski and the north mississippi allstars. as i said, they were doing a gospel album and randolph was all over that.

i was able to catch them live down in SoCal. it was a fabulous show. lots of jamming and so forth. i was a little disappointed with the small role medeski seemed to play.

a little after that i was at a music festival where randolph performed with his own band and they tore the roof off the joint. especially when they launched into a little “voodoo chile slight return”. even better was when he jammed with galactic on “liitle miss lover”.

as for his christianity. i have no solid reason to doubt his sincerity, but i did read an interview with him wherein he said something to the effect that he had pretty much abandoned church and then he started playing pedal steel. doesn’t sound like the most solid testimony of faith to me.