After reading the recent press on The Cold War Kids and their debated Christian faith I feel it is necessary to give my two cents on the issue of indie rock and Christianity.
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=5267http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/39188/Cold_War_Kids_Robbers_and_Cowards
As Pitchfork so eloquently put it, “hipsters hate Jesus.” This I can understand but when it comes to music I think that some open mindedness should be expected. Plenty of artists sing about things I am not terribly interested in or would ever do, like shooting up heroin, being famous or sleeping with large numbers of women. However, lyrics don’t usually hinder me from getting into a good band. I am sure many of you Jesus hating cool kids are disagreeing with me but let me share some personal experience.
After growing up in a family where my only religion was watching Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth around Christmas time, I didn’t really believe in much, just some form of God. My senior year of high school I randomly found God and Jesus and all that other jazz due to many different circumstances. I then arrived at Seattle Pacific University as a freshmen and though I had found some faith I still had a lot of questions and not much of an understanding of popular Christian culture, especially in my age group. In the year and a half I spent at this school I began to realize just who these “Christians” were. I was forced to go to 20 hours of Christian events a quarter which included guys talking about how they had lost faith and become gay only to be “fixed by Jesus” and were now straight enough to share their stories. I went to the famous Mars Hill Church in Seattle, run by Satan himself Mark Driscall who believes women can not be ordained. Professors who were closeted themselves or ones who cried at the beginning of class begging everyone to spend their big Christian bucks on the starving children in Africa. The main theme in the freshmen dorms was “ring for spring” which quickly led to my rebellion of dating one of the only other outsiders, a guy who wore a tail for fun and would flash his homemade porn belt in the school cafeteria. I would walk a mile just to hide in the woods so I could smoke a cigarette. In the end this school made me loose complete faith in Jesus and I buried myself in music and anything that wasn’t religious, anything. A year and a quarter later I woke up one morning, looked out the window, threw all my crap in my Honda and drove back to Portland. Best decision of my life. I am now an agnostic at best and proud of it.
So why do I tell you this long, pointless story? No it is not my personal pity party. I want to justify the fact that I have had my own horrendous Christian experience before I go on with my argument for hipsters to get off their high horse. And no not all Christians fall into this category, of crazies and hypocrites.
Many amazing bands have Christian jargon or visuals in their music that scares off listeners in tight pants with perfectly placed holes. Or the running phrase I have heard too much of, “They aren’t a Christian band, they are Christians in a band.” In the end who knows if many of these bands are Christians or not and does it really matter if the music is good? To name a few bands that have at some point been associated with Christianity:
Sufjan StevensPedro The LionCold War KidsMute MathU2Bob DylanBelle and Sebastian
I once saw David Bazan of Pedro the Lion get quite angry at a show after having too many interviewers ask him if he was a Christian. I seem to remember him even using the word “Fuck” to show his distain. Of course I also think that there are exceptions to all this. Such as bands that start out as extremely preachy and one sided, only to suddenly not want to talk about their beliefs or no longer sing about them in a direct way because they are picked up by a major label. This is hugely hypocritical and a metaphor for many of the people I went to college with. I think that we can put Switchfoot and POD into this genre, though they were never decent in the first place.
Music is an art form and many people can be deterred because Jesus gets involved. However, Jesus didn’t make the music and as long as no one is asking you to believe in him, you might as well listen. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point of acceptance and I understand that some people just can’t do it. But being a music snob doesn’t mean that you can’t open your ears to bands like Cold War Kids because of their implied beliefs.
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=5267http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/39188/Cold_War_Kids_Robbers_and_Cowards
As Pitchfork so eloquently put it, “hipsters hate Jesus.” This I can understand but when it comes to music I think that some open mindedness should be expected. Plenty of artists sing about things I am not terribly interested in or would ever do, like shooting up heroin, being famous or sleeping with large numbers of women. However, lyrics don’t usually hinder me from getting into a good band. I am sure many of you Jesus hating cool kids are disagreeing with me but let me share some personal experience.
After growing up in a family where my only religion was watching Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth around Christmas time, I didn’t really believe in much, just some form of God. My senior year of high school I randomly found God and Jesus and all that other jazz due to many different circumstances. I then arrived at Seattle Pacific University as a freshmen and though I had found some faith I still had a lot of questions and not much of an understanding of popular Christian culture, especially in my age group. In the year and a half I spent at this school I began to realize just who these “Christians” were. I was forced to go to 20 hours of Christian events a quarter which included guys talking about how they had lost faith and become gay only to be “fixed by Jesus” and were now straight enough to share their stories. I went to the famous Mars Hill Church in Seattle, run by Satan himself Mark Driscall who believes women can not be ordained. Professors who were closeted themselves or ones who cried at the beginning of class begging everyone to spend their big Christian bucks on the starving children in Africa. The main theme in the freshmen dorms was “ring for spring” which quickly led to my rebellion of dating one of the only other outsiders, a guy who wore a tail for fun and would flash his homemade porn belt in the school cafeteria. I would walk a mile just to hide in the woods so I could smoke a cigarette. In the end this school made me loose complete faith in Jesus and I buried myself in music and anything that wasn’t religious, anything. A year and a quarter later I woke up one morning, looked out the window, threw all my crap in my Honda and drove back to Portland. Best decision of my life. I am now an agnostic at best and proud of it.
So why do I tell you this long, pointless story? No it is not my personal pity party. I want to justify the fact that I have had my own horrendous Christian experience before I go on with my argument for hipsters to get off their high horse. And no not all Christians fall into this category, of crazies and hypocrites.
Many amazing bands have Christian jargon or visuals in their music that scares off listeners in tight pants with perfectly placed holes. Or the running phrase I have heard too much of, “They aren’t a Christian band, they are Christians in a band.” In the end who knows if many of these bands are Christians or not and does it really matter if the music is good? To name a few bands that have at some point been associated with Christianity:
Sufjan StevensPedro The LionCold War KidsMute MathU2Bob DylanBelle and Sebastian
I once saw David Bazan of Pedro the Lion get quite angry at a show after having too many interviewers ask him if he was a Christian. I seem to remember him even using the word “Fuck” to show his distain. Of course I also think that there are exceptions to all this. Such as bands that start out as extremely preachy and one sided, only to suddenly not want to talk about their beliefs or no longer sing about them in a direct way because they are picked up by a major label. This is hugely hypocritical and a metaphor for many of the people I went to college with. I think that we can put Switchfoot and POD into this genre, though they were never decent in the first place.
Music is an art form and many people can be deterred because Jesus gets involved. However, Jesus didn’t make the music and as long as no one is asking you to believe in him, you might as well listen. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point of acceptance and I understand that some people just can’t do it. But being a music snob doesn’t mean that you can’t open your ears to bands like Cold War Kids because of their implied beliefs.
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