Even Destroyers Have A Price

Well, alright.

Apropos of nothing, really, or the most recent New Pornographers album, I suppose, and mostly the Dan Bejar-penned track "Myriad Harbor," I wanted to take a moment to write about Dan Bejar aka Destroyer. A minor poet, is how I'll introduce him, not as a slur, but fully as a compliment. And musically? Baroque. Rich, indulgent, ornamented pop anthems. You'll be entering a world that is not your own, but it is well worth your while.

I can't remember exactly when I first started listening to Destroyer. I remember distinctly LM recommending him to me, sometime in 1999, and I have a vague impression of someone slipping in Streethawk: A Seduction into a car's CD player. So it was either LM and the Cabriolet driving down El Camino in '99 or TL and a rental heading down 95 to D.C. Either way, I had formed exactly the wrong impression of Destroyer, based strictly on the band's name. In no way was I prepared for the hand claps, the orchestration, the fragments of poetry, the allusions within allusions, wandering in and out of a narrative arc that seems to have loosely woven through five albums, jabbing at idiosyncratic targets. But, well, c'mon in.

Take a few listens, as Destroyer isn't for everybody. I may even go so far as to say an acquired taste, although I think it is probably more love or hate. But at the moment, I am entirely digging Bejar again.

See Merge Records for MP3s and more information about the band, or this site for a couple of MP3s and a fawning profile (though no more fawning than this slight one). Bejar is also very articulate as a songwriter and craftsman, and speaks openly about his process and his music - not always the case in rock 'n roll. A couple of interviews that are older, but diverting reads, are here and here.