Artist of the week 10/4/10: Destroyer

[Jack Flash]

There are few people in the history of the English language that have taught me more about it than Dan Bejar.

No, no, no… that sounded outrageous the moment I typed it. This guy is no Shakespeare. His lyrics consist of impenetrable, random amalgamations of pseudo-poetic passages, nonsensical references and meta-babble that couldn’t possibly mean anything beyond self-indulgent art house bullshit (not to mention that ridiculous singing voice he uses to relay them). Could they?

Hmm. There must be. There must be something to this bearded Vancouverite bard. Otherwise no one would care enough to set up the Bejar Family Circus (refresh to strafe through a goldmine of classic Bejarisms like “You won’t go into the half of it so I’m going to nitpick/the exegesis comes quick to whoever’s less sorry now,” “I know the altar boys, they just want to do me/and that’s fine, you gotta have faith,” and “We stole a gondola to sea and ditched the chaperones on jewel-encrusted roans who called us ‘unprofessional’”) or invent the Destroyer drinking game (the rules have disappeared from the internet, but trust me… it exists). The fact is that people do care- because this man is one of the finest fucking songwriters we’ve got- and will ever have.

Let’s start from somewhere more penetrable. If you’ve heard of Daniel Bejar at all, you most likely know him as “the guy in the New Pornographers with the weird ass voice.” And you’d be correct! Maybe you’ve heard a few New Pornos records on which Dan moonlights for three songs and acts as a secondary foil to Carl Newman’s brash, brainy power pop songs. He’s managed to pen a couple of the band’s more popular songs like “Streets Of Fire” and “Myriad Harbour” (as well as what might be their best song after “The Bleeding Heart Show,” “Testament To Youth In Verse”). Maybe you’ve seen the band live and noticed Dan periodically stalk on stage, chug a beer, sing one of his songs, and awkwardly shuffle off stage again. He even appeared in the video for the Carl-penned, Neko Case-sung hit “The Laws Have Changed,” playing the bartender:



But this, to use a well-worn but apt phrase, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Destroyer began in the mid-1990’s as a pseudonym for Bejar and his 4-track home recordings. As he began to gain notoriety in Vancouver’s underground rock scene on the back of his strong songwriting (documented on two home-recorded albums, 1995’s We’ll Build Them A Golden Bridge and 1997’s currently out of print, cassette only release Ideas For Songs), he was asked by Carl Newman to join his new project, the New Pornographers, in 1997. Before that oxymoronic “indie rock supergroup” broke through with Mass Romantic in 2000, the first Destroyer record to feature musicians other than Bejar and to be recorded in a studio, City Of Daughters, was released in 1998. It proved to a transitional effort, bridging Dan’s uber lo-fi, self consciously weird home recordings with his more developed future, and was a mere taste of the brilliance to come. After the success of Mass Romantic, Dan swore off touring with the New Pornographers for the next five years and released the glam-tinged baroque pop (or is it baroque-tinged glam? Probably neither…) powerhouse Thief in 2000. It brought the Destroyer name its first taste of critical notoriety. The following decade would be one of, put simply, unmitigated brilliance.

It’s hard to describe exactly what makes a Destroyer song. Allow me to begin your introduction with what I am partial to describing as the Destroyer Prototype: “Destroyer’s The Temple,” off of Thief:



In this tune, we hear the primary elements that appear in most Bejarsongs: an effortlessly catchy, folksy-yet-ambitious melody, convoluted lyrics championing “the artist,” a thoughtful, precise, though ultimately simple arrangement. It works as the clearest outright statement of Bejar’s unique outsider intellectual oddball ideology- the temple could be the music business, or mainstream society, or really anything. But above all, we know that “there’s joy in being barred from the temple…”

So what goes into a Bejar lyric? Dan explains the template: “I like putting common expressions next to uncommon expressions. I'm sure in Poetry 101 there is a name for it, but it seems like you usually go one way or the other in rock music.” A good example might be the opening line (er, well… second opening line) of the nine and a half minute epic, “Rubies,” off of 2006’s Destroyer’s Rubies: “Cast myself towards infinity/Trust me, I had my reasons":



You’ll hear lots of arch “la-di-da’s” in most Bejarsongs too. Beyond that, though, a Destroyer lyric is what you make of it. Phrases and themes will appear, mystify, dazzle, recur and then disappear… demented poetry just as easily dismissed as cherished. You probably won’t “get it” but if you’re lucky it will get you.

Dan is no cakewalk to interpret, but critics have a habit of doing so inaccurately, through either ignorance or willful misapprehension. For instance, many are convinced that all he sings about is his disillusionment with the music business. And though the theme definitely appears, especially on Thief, it is a mere segment of the Destroyer lyrical canvas. Another persistent misconception concerns Dan’s musical influences. They can be pretty easily ascertained, whether by sound (Robyn Hitchcock, Guided By Voices), laudation in interviews (Rock *A* Teens) or by any of the myriad of references Dan makes to other bands in songs (the Fall, Big Star, Zeppelin and Floyd make memorable appearances, among many others). Nonetheless, many misconstrue him, for whatever reason, as some sort of blind Bowie acolyte. I mean, shit, the influence is there (not that a Bowie influence is a particularly rare phenomenon…); just take a listen to “The Sublimination Hour,” one of the greatest and most savage of Bejarsongs, off 2001’s Streethawk: A Seduction:



But it’s not overwhelming. Although there is one desirable trait Dan might be said to have inherited from Bowie: restlessness. The ambition to metamorphose into something potentially greater. Like Bowie’s 70’s output, Destroyer’s 00’s discography is one marked by both consistent brilliance and constant change. Beginning this staggering winning streak is Streethawk: A Seduction, a gritty, masterful survey of expert song craft and affecting moods- from the sardonic bite of “Streethawk I” and “English Music” to the awed shimmer of “Helena” and “The Crossover” to the mournful longing of “Strike” and “Farrar, Straus & Giroux,” Streethawk doesn’t let up for even a second. Oh, and it also contains Bejar’s ultimate opus, “The Bad Arts.” With lines like “they’re singing those inspirationals you penned back in ‘72” and “the singer sold us out/the guitarist lost his clout,” I like to think of it as a cynical living history of the Rolling Stones, but make of it what you will:



If Streethawk is about emotional diversity, then its follow up, 2002’s This Night, is a monumental indulgence of deep, dark parts of Destroyer’s soul. It’s also Dan’s masterpiece. A double LP’s worth of a demented take on arena rock—I’ve been known to call it Neil Young & Crazy Horse for the clinically insane—This Night piles it on thick. The folksy sound of previous efforts is completely transformed. Massive layers of guitars and various distorted noises weave in and out of the daring, fragmented arrangements, sounding unrehearsed but all the more appropriate. Spiraling, anthemic sections unexpectedly yield to melodic chants and vice versa, which makes it all the more devastating when a mood is sustained throughout the course of a full song. You need to hear this. You might hate it. I sure hope not, for your sake.



See, that’s the thing. There is no consensus on what the best Destroyer album is. I might tell you to run out and buy This Night and Streethawk, but there are plenty of others who will swear by 2004’s Your Blues, an album that features no instrumentation aside from Dan’s voice, some acoustic guitar and MIDI instruments (if you like the songs but find the arrangements off-putting, you can hear six of them re-recorded in more traditional rockist arrangements on the Notorious Lightning And Other Works EP, on which Vancouver indie rockers Frog Eyes serve as the backing band). “It’s Gonna Take An Airplane” is the collection’s most immediate song:



Still more will recommend 2006’s Destroyer’s Rubies, and though it’s not my favorite of this group (I actually prefer its follow up, the most recent Destroyer album, 2008’s Trouble In Dreams, which is in a similar vein), it represents a successful consolidation of the Destroyer sound and remains its most critically and commercially successful release.

Daniel’s not done. No sir. He’s got a couple of side projects: Swan Lake, a collaboration with fellow Vancouver indie rock luminaries Spencer Krug and Carey Mercer, and Hello, Blue Roses, which consists of himself and his longtime girlfriend. And that restlessness isn’t going away either. Look no further than “Bay Of Pigs,” a 13 and a half-minute ambient electronic-influenced masterpiece that was released on an EP of the same name in 2009 (edited down slightly to fit on Youtube):



Wow.

That’s Destroyer, in a nutshell.

[The Black Canary]

WOW, nice write up. I had no clue about this guy what so ever. Thank you

[uncle rickey]

Thanks for this write-up, Jack. Well done.

It's funny, I have all of the New Pornographers' stuff, and even though Dan Bejar's songs are some of my favorites (particularly on Challengers), I've got all of A.C. Newman's solo works, most of Neko's, and none of his. I'll have to change that.

[lajakesdad]

Man, I thought this was a KISS thread

[Emily]

Excellent write up. It took some time for Destroyer to grow on me, but it definitely did in the end.

Also, that Bejar Family Circus thing is hilarious.

[beantownbubba]

Like my uncle rickey, I consider myself a reasonably big new pornographers fan, but never really focused on dan bejar's contributions, nor am i familiar w/ any of his solo stuff. I guess i'll have to remedy that, but in the meantime, i've spent a nice portion of the day reminding myself why i like the np' so much, so thanks for that already!

[Jack Flash]

I just want to add something here for anyone that's been digging Destroyer and/or alcohol... I found it!

Destroyer Drinking Game