Download “Bless This Mess” From Stereogum

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David Bazan’s Curse Your Branches (9/1, Barsuk) is the Pedro The Lion/Headphones main man’s first full-length under his own name. We spoke with him about its “Bless This Mess,” which debuts in this week’s ‘Gum Drop.

“Bless This Mess” covers a lot of territory — dysfunctional families, alcoholism, mirrors, forgiveness, history. What inspired it?
The song is largely autobiographical. So any narrative in the song reflects actual events. Though I may have embellished a bit. But the main lyrical gimmick is sort of a self-conscious and hopeful interpretation of the Beatitudes, which I have an uneasy relationship with as the narrative tends to illustrate.

[READ MORE + DOWNLOAD SONG]

Curse Your Branches CD Package

A lot of people have asked about the CD package. It was designed by the super talented folks at Decoder Ring. There is an outer sleeve that goes around the jewel case. Once the sleeve is removed there is a die-cut circle in the booklet that reveals the album title printed on the CD. The booklet is tri-fold and includes all the lyrics and album credits. The outer sleeve and booklet are printed on good quality matte paper stock. We’ll post photos and details about the LP package as soon as we have them in stock.

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Chicago Reader Cover Story

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“People used to compare him to Jesus,” says a backstage manager as David Bazan walks offstage, guitar in hand. “But not so much anymore.” It’s Thursday, July 2, and Bazan has just finished his set at Cornerstone, the annual Christian music festival held on a farm near Bushnell, Illinois. He hasn’t betrayed his crowd the way Dylan did when he went electric—this is something very different. The kids filling the 1,500-capacity tent know their Jesus from their Judas. There was a time when Bazan’s fans believed he was speaking, or rather singing, the Word. Not so much anymore. [ READ ARTICLE ]

Phoning It In.

David Bazan was at the Undertow office when he did an interview and live performance for the KDVS radio show “Phoning It In.” We had our video camera set up and filmed his performance of “Options.” You can here this performance, the full interview and other songs from the other end of the phone HERE.