Lift to Experience
Lift to Experience, a Christian rock band from Denton, Texas. The outfit formed in 1996, with Josh T. Pearson (vocals & guitar), Andy "The Boy" Young (drums) and Josh "The Bear" Browning (bass).[1][2]
Background
It has been reported that while the band had performed at the SXSW festival during its first semester of 2000, they had impressed Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie so much that the duo decided to sign the band to their record label Bella Union on that very same day.
The rich and grandiose sound textures of this band, with its single guitar set up is achieved through heavy use of effects pedals coupled with a less than usual Leslie speaker.
The band's major work is The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (2001), a sprawling song cycle replete with Biblical and Christian imagery, particularly of the Second Coming. Pearson's lyrics combine devout Christianity with a professed love of Texas and the United States of America. Pearson goes so far as to refer to the "USA" as the heart of Jerusalem by highlighting the letters in the word - JerUSAlem.
The songs themselves are melodic and layered, with vocals and instruments densely packed to the point of seeming to tumble over themselves. However, it is the band's arrangements and startling delivery that give the album its uniqueness and lasting quality. At times the songs literally descend into feedback, as if the band are musically flailing in the tempest of sound they have created. This is reminiscent of The Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine and, quite oddly, Husker Du on Zen Arcade. The last song, Into the storm is 28.57 minutes long, but is actually the song (10.02 minutes), a silence (14.20 minutes) and a reprise at 24.22 minutes in which a riff is repeated like a raga against a steadily increasing tempo of the drums.
According to their label the band is no more with no hope to get together again. Frontman Josh T. Pearson is currently pursuing a solo career. Andy Young formed a project with Elbow frontman Guy Garvey called Western Arms, which appears to be in a long hiatus, with one song, Blue on Blue, available on their MySpace page.
Discography
- Lift To Experience EP (1997)
- Callin' Out To Jesus In The Middle Of The Night (2000) - split 7" with The Autumns ("White Nights").
- The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (2001) Double LP/Double CD
- These Are The Days (2001) - CD single
References
External links
Category:American rock music groups
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