Pedro the Lion

Item: It's Hard to Find a Friend
Author: Steven S. Baldwin

It's Hard to Find a Friend

(1998)

Reviewed by Steven S. Baldwin

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Label Made in MexicoThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

indie rock lo-fi singer-songwriter slowcore

Take a lone guitar, a bass, and your basic drum set and you've got the bare bones of Pedro the Lion's catchy sound. Now add some carefully constructed lyrics and a heap load of melancholy, and the result is their deceptively simple formula for exquisite, low-fi music.

Principal songwriter, guitar-player, and lead vocalist David Bazan has the rare uncanny gift to express the innermost parts of himself, be they joyful or sad, in such a way that witnesses of his work can be drawn in completely. Vocally, he delivers in a similar style and moodiness to Counting Crows' Adam Duritz, but musically he creates such a bare musical landscape, you wonder what attracts you to it since there isn't much happening. Despite that, or maybe partly because of it, you are attracted to the elementary music all the same. Remarkably, Bazan can do more with a few notes than most can with many, and he does it primarily through his gift for expression. Other sad-sacks, like Robert Smith of The Cure, often sing with a catchy but dire melancholy, but when Bazan emotes, he mopes with hope.

Lions usually roar, but Pedro paints a gently muted but still lively savannah. Sounding nothing like those other Seattle bands, Pedro the Lion has been recently tacked with the Emo label, which only sort of fits. Certainly Pedro's collective music is emotional and interesting, but the band doesn't sound much like Radiohead or their peers. Instead, they paint their own delicate musical pictures that faintly recall a low-fi Cure with splashes of alt-pop bands like the Lemonheads. What all these bands have in common is an ability to tap into the alienation and anxiety of today's distraught musical listeners. There is much in this world to lament, as more than just the youth of our culture know; however, Pedro the Lion takes that spirit of lamentation and loneliness and brings it back to the foot of God's throne, in much the same way King David did. The result is a batch of tunes that gently let you emote along with Bazan about the often painful consequences of life with a modicum of pure joy shining through. For example, "Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives" puts a clever contemporary spin on the story of Hosea. Another standout cut, "When They Really Get to Know You They Will Run," urges listeners to place their self-esteem in God's hands, and radio-ready singles like "Big Truck," which is a delightful lesson on patience, expresses an atypical quality of wonder. Music in such a simple dress is rarely this sophisticated, poetic, intelligent, and stirring, not to mention courageously honest.

Recently on tour all over the country with folkster Damien Jurado, Pedro the Lion took its music and messages straight to the masses most in need of their supernatural relevance. To bummed out crowds nursing drunks in blackened bars, this band is a ray of hope, never embarrassed to bare the weight of the cross, but rather grateful for it. Pedro the Lion is an experience you really should have for yourself. Catch this one by the tail, and don't let go.

4 tocks