Just Be Cool; That's the Motto

After a 5-year hiatus from full-band touring, David Bazan recently went back out on the road. His new album, Curse Your Branches (released September of '09), was drafted in the distant wake of his former band Pedro the Lion, and is Bazan's first full-length solo foray."Due to personal reasons, I just had to put the brand name to rest," said Bazan. Having already been the creative force behind PTL, Bazan translated his act to a one-man show with hired members picked up where and when they were needed. "I certainly would be considered the musical director. Sometimes I would work with the other members to figure things out," says Bazan.

With the completion of Curse Your Branches, Bazan played a series of 70 sold-out, low-key house shows, forging into a full U.S. tour after the album's public release.

Who would have thought that one of those stops would have been here at the quaintly populated Messiah College? Bazan said that he has been buddies with Jeff Rioux, the college's SAB director, for over six years.

"If not for him, I probably wouldn't have come," says Bazan.

Bazan has been touring around the country with the five-piece garage-rock band, Headlights.

"Sounds like they're doing something different tonight. They're great. yeah," Bazan noted, detaching for a second to listen in.

Bazan came onto the stage with an air of melancholy - it was an interesting departure from the story-telling, talkative performer. Without any dissatisfaction, though, his music spoke volumes.

The demeanor, however, came with the territory. Curse your Branches is a fairly well-encompassing categorization of doubt running in the same vein as The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible with the snapshot lucidity of Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake it's Morning.

The performance was relatively relaxed, drifting into sounds reminiscent of Control (one of Pedro the Lion's albums) while refining the variety of sounds beyond his previous band's hallmark fuzzy guitars and garage drums. Bazan's live show held relatively true to the album, which simply adds on a few synth and percussive embellishments.

Between songs, Bazan queried, "So, are there any questions at this point in the show?"

"Are you still agnostic?" one audience member asked.

"I don't know," said Bazan.

Every word on the album is sung slowly and with clarity, saving the spotlight for the lyrics as if to ensure that his message comes home. It is definitely an ambitious endeavor that runs the gamut from Bazan's questioning of faith, his tango with alcohol, and his estrangement from his daughter; all of which culminate in the title track "Curse your Branches."

"Oh, falling leaves should curse their branches / For not letting them decide where they should fall / And not letting them refuse to fall at all. And why are some hellbent upon, there being an answer? / While some are quite content, to answer ' I don't know '."

If anything, this album reminds me that artists are still people who face everyday struggles. "Yeah, holding them [artists] in that reverential place is a bad thing," says Bazan. "I plan on spending the summer with my kids. My daughter just got out of school."

As for the future for himself and his music, Bazan says that he plans to keep on touring.

"Coming out of a system where major labels rule, are absurd, bloated, and corrupted, whatever comes next comes next. I don't know about myself, but music will thrive anyway. It's a very easily movable kind of format -- everything will be fine, it all ebbs and flows. I'm a life-er for sure.