{"id":69965,"date":"2019-01-22T02:04:50","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T08:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=69965"},"modified":"2019-01-22T02:04:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T08:04:50","slug":"pedro-the-lion-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2019\/01\/22\/pedro-the-lion-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedro the Lion: Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Over the last couple of years, we\u2019ve seen a significant number of alternative and emo bands from the 90\u2019s and early 2000\u2019s reunite and return to the studio to release new music. Slowdive, American Football, and pretty soon Mineral will have released albums after some extended hiatuses that we weren\u2019t ever sure would end. One band that fits this description, Pedro the Lion, just released an album last Friday entitled Phoenix<\/em>, although this rebirth looks a bit different from it’s contemporaries.<\/p>\n

Since the late 90\u2019s, David Bazan has been releasing music under a handful of monikers that dive deep into complicated and emotional topics, such as fleeting spirituality, corrupt politicians, and very commonly, isolation. This is Bazan\u2019s first time returning to the name Pedro the Lion since the 2004 LP, Achilles Heel<\/em>. The return of the name isn\u2019t technically a reunion, as Bazan himself played everything, and used wide range of musicians to fill in for live shows and such. While it may be the first Pedro the Lion record in 15 years, Bazan has kept himself busy touring and releasing music mostly under his own name.<\/p>\n

The primary reasoning behind the album\u2019s title isn\u2019t some metaphor for the band finally rising from the ashes, but instead is simply the name of the city that Bazan grew up in. Place and identity go hand in hand, and all throughout this album we see how Bazan\u2019s early experiences have shaped him, and how the loneliness he felt back then has manifested itself somehow on nearly every album he\u2019s worked on.<\/p>\n

We first get a peek into this era of Bazan\u2019s life with the lead single \u201cYellow Bike\u201d. He reflects on the freedom of being able to go anywhere, but still wishing he\u2019d have someone to go with, whether it be in his \u201ckingdom\u201d of Phoenix, Arizona in 1981, or touring solo across the country in 2017. No line on this album better conveys this feeling than on \u201cModel Homes\u201d, where Bazan describes his childhood dream of someday starting a family (a dream that\u2019s been fulfilled, in case you were wondering). \u201cI wanna live with someone else, give them my whole self. I wanna be not lonely<\/em>.\u201d The album isn\u2019t just a dozen tracks lamenting on isolation, but is a series of flashbacks that Bazan uses to give listeners a glimpse of how he retroactively feels about the interactions and relationships that has made him who he is today. The six minute album closer \u201cLeaving The Valley\u201d does a fantastic job of tying all of these experiences together, as well as getting us ready for the next step of Pedro The Lion\u2019s story.
\n
\nRecommended If You Like: Cursive, Conor Oberst, Pity Sex
\nRecommended Tracks: 2 (Yellow Bike), 3 (Clean Up), 5 (Model Homes), 7 (Circle K), 8 (Quietest Friend), 13 (Leaving the Valley)
\nDo Not Play: None
\nWritten by Patrick Kennedy on 01\/22\/2019 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 years later, David Bazan has decided to revive the Pedro the Lion moniker for his newest release, Phoenix<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20855,"featured_media":69966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[8278,8277,8279],"class_list":["post-69965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rock-rotation","tag-david-bazan","tag-pedro-the-lion","tag-phoenix"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/a3148564233_10-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20855"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}