[The New Classics is a reoccurring segment in which we examine our favorite indie releases that are bound to replace our parents' “classic rock” stash hidden in the attic or the basement. These aren’t reviews, these are unedited testimonies and opinions about why we love what we love. Can we get a witness?]

Words by Will

Album: The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads
Artist: Lift To Experience
Released: June 26, 2001
Label: Bella Union
Producers: Robin Guthrie & Simon Raymonde

The great thing about music blogging is that none of the important shit really matters. I can do whatever the fuck I want (like gratuitous cussing!) and I am extremely grateful for that. As a journalist by trade, I have been taught (or forced) to be concise and precise. It is imperative that I am exact in my writing. I need to make sure that I adequately convey something in the shortest amount of words as possible, so I can fit as much information into a small space. Therefore, the wonderful thing about this music blogging side-gig is that I can break all of those habits that I have developed as a newspaper journalist. I can use parenthetical statements and I can misuse them. I can use parentheses within parentheses if I so please. And it’s fitting that I am being anything but brief as I introduce this next new classic, because Lift To Experience are anything but brief themselves …

Lift To Experience / Just As Was Told
Lift To Experience / Waiting To Hit

Musically, Lift To Experience are quite excessive and expansive. Formed in 1996 in Denton, Texas, Lift To Experience is a three-piece rock outfit that specializes in Texas, The Bible, and hazy, multi-layered guitar effects. Their one and only album, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, is a new classic. In every sense of the word, this album is a classic, but it is most likely underappreciated and unrecognized in its greatness.

Lift To Experience is Josh T. “Buck” Pearson on guitar and vocals, Andy “The Boy” Young on drums, and Josh “Bear” Browning on bass. (Don’t those just sound like kickass Texas names?) They were together for a brief period, but during that time, they released their double album masterpiece, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, in 2001. The album tells of the second coming of Jesus Christ and his love of the state of Texas. They offer a Texas brand of indie rock that is steeped in ominous religious imagery. And while the overly religious nature of the whole affair might prove to be grating to some, the conviction and skill with which it is delivered really makes this an exciting and exhilarating affair.
 
Lift To Experience / “These Are The Days” / The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads [Bella Union]

 
“The U.S.A. is the center of Jerusalem,” Josh T. Pearson offers on album opener, “Just As Was Told.” And from there, the Bible parade commences. Lift To Experience is very biblical. From the very imagery invoked by the band’s name to the massive amounts of religious allusions and references presented in the lyrics, Lift To Experience are all about religion and the act of transcending (or at least surviving the impending Texas Apocalypse). “Just as was told, justice will unfold,” Pearson seemingly warns the audience later in the song.

Produced by former Cocteau Twins Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde, Lift To Experience’s sole album combines some of the sonic grandiosity of Explosions in the Sky (in terms of wailing guitars, huge amounts of feedback, and an imposing wall of sound aesthetic) with downright eerie vocals from Pearson. When I hear Pearson sing, I imagine a marriage of Lou Reed and Jeff Buckley. He is a truly talented and unique vocalist. The whole becomes something masterful. “Just a stupid ranch hand in a Texas rock band, trying to understand God’s master plan,” Pearson plaintively tells us in “Waiting to Hit” (which is easily my favorite song on the album). The song tells the Biblical tale of waiting for that enlightenment that the world might be ending or beginning anew. The album is truly brilliant. It’s a wonderful juxtaposition of deeply religious imagery delivered in a manner that is both strange and awe-inspiring. It’s a swirling Texas-sized masterpiece.

Sadly, Lift To Experience broke up shortly after releasing this album. I guess the band transcended to a higher plane. Or they got hit by that impending apocalypse. Or something. In any case, the experience they left us with, in the form of this album, will lift any of you along with them, I guarantee it.

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Buy The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads: Bella Union / iTunes / Amazon / Insound

Filed under: New Classics, Not Blake, Jim, or Brendan