mewithoutYou

I am fairly obsessed with this band. There is surely not a better post-hardcore spoken-word indie folk rock band exploring Christian and Sufi themes out there. As evidence, I present this wonderful music video, for their new song, "The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie".

The lead singer, Aaron Weiss, is an amazing lyricist. I gotta respect a songwriter who can outdo my vocabulary several times in a single song, and do so in such a creative manner. As in the spiel from the Crow in the above song:

Your subtle acclamation's true!
Best to give praise where praise is due.
Every rook and jay
in the corvidae's
been ravin' about me too.
They admire me, one and all,
must be the passion in my caw,
my slender bill
known throughout the escadrille,
my fierce commanding claw!

Without being preachy, Weiss' lyrics deal with sins of various sorts (like pride, as in that snippet), and the struggle to do away with all that, to renounce all attachments to worldly goods and passions, and instead become one with God.

And although one can never tell, there is at least some indication that he actually means it: Weiss is a freegan (i.e., he dumpster-dives instead of buying stuff), and he has apparently sworn himself to celibacy.

Plus, he's been arrested protesting at the Pentagon, and mewithoutYou's tour-bus runs on used vegetable oil instead of gas.

If it weren't for the fact that he was celibate (and certain other technical difficulties) I would totally want to have his babies.