Thursday, April 13, 2006

Don't you dare boy think my Lord hath done forgotten

It's no secret: 16 Horsepower is one of my favorite bands. Their dark Appalachian old-testament fire-and-brimstone sound is like nothing else I've heard--truly, deeply potent. I am not even remotely a Christian, but what of that? I won't claim I'm entirely immune from judging art based on ideology, but I try my best to keep that stuff out and appreciate it--or not--on a purely aesthetic level. Most self-consciously Christian popular music fails because it's "Christian" first and "music" second. At its best--like, f'rinstance, in the case of 16HP--the religious experience adds to the aesthetic. But that only works because the band realizes that the most important goal in music is to make good music. If you don't have that as a foundation, nothing else is going to stick.

For a long time, I didn't even think of 16HP as an overtly Christian band. Which was kind of dumb of me, because it's pretty transparently obvious from their lyrics. Part of the reason was that when I think of contemporary Christian music, I think bad, whereas this band is clearly good, but another part is that their music is so theatrical and relentlessly dark that it's not exactly likely to convert anyone, nor to make anyone feel self-righteous about his/her faith. For this reason, I had the vague idea that it was perhaps something of an affectation. I mean, I don't mean to sound condescending or patronizing, but it's hard to believe anyone could be singing songs like 16HP's in this day and age and really mean it. I enjoy them in a totally non-ironic way, but there's a definite air of anachronism about them. Slim Cessna of Slim Cessna's Auto Club (which band, incidentally, tore the fucking roof off when I saw them in concert last week--highly recommended) frequently writes songs about God and Satan, yet identifies as an agnostic and a liberal. So might this not be a similar situation?

Nope. As it turns out, not 16HP singer/songwriter David Eugene Edmunds is pretty much unambiguously a Christian fundamentalist. As in, the Bible is the literal word of God, all other religions of false, and you are hellbound if you are not a believer. Dude. In the linked interview, he says some things about Islam that, to put the most charitable spin possible on it, could be described as "confused." Most unfortunate.

I sporadically try to avoid having litmus tests for whether or not I'll associate with people. Sporadically. But one of my most fundamental--and wholly non-negotiable--rules is that, if you believe that homoseckshualossitousness is a "sin," I don't want to know you. And if you try to soften the blow by further noting that we're all sinners, not only do I not want to know you, but I also want to punch you in the throat. So...I'm never going to be DEE's friend.

But I like the band anyway. I, who waver between mushy agnosticism and out-and-out atheism, and who is therefore beyond a shadow of a doubt hellbound in DEE's view. And whaddaya wanna bet that in that, I am broadly representative of the band's fanbase as a whole? Sifting through amazon reviews of the band's work, that seems to be the general tenor. Hardcore Christians who demand that their music reflect their faith tend to be a pretty self-righteous bunch, and, as noted above, there isn't much to feel smug about in 16HP's music. "Every man is evil yes and every man a liar/Unashamed with the wicked tongue sings in the black soul choir." No, this seems much more likely to attract an audience that enjoys the aesthetics of Old-Testament wrath rather than one that actually believes in it.

...I really have no idea where I'm going with this. I just thought it was interesting. If I had to recommend one 16HP CD, it would probably be Secret South. Some people have derided it for being too accessible, but you know what "some people" are like. "Splinters," "Burning Bush," and "Straw Foot," among others, are wonderful, and the covers, of Dylan's "Nobody 'Cept You" and the traditional spiritual "Wayfaring Stranger" are definitive. You can't go wrong with any of their stuff, though.


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